Three weeks ago, it was agreed upon between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden in a phone call that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would visit China soon.
In a climax to the visit, Xi met with Blinken at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday afternoon, hours before the top U.S. diplomat wrapped up his three-day trip to the country.
China and the United States should shoulder responsibilities for world peace and create opportunities for the development of all countries, Xi said.
As major countries, the two countries should set a good example of how major countries are supposed to act, provide global public goods, and contribute to world solidarity, he said.
Noting that this year marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the U.S., Xi said that the relationship has gone through wind and rain, and it has a number of important inspirations to offer.
China and the U.S. should be partners rather than rivals, help each other succeed rather than hurt each other, seek common ground and reserve differences rather than engage in vicious competition, and honor words with actions rather than say one thing but do the opposite, he stressed.
“I proposed mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation to be the three overarching principles. They are both lessons learned from the past and a guide for the future,” Xi said.
The first button for China-U.S. ties
During the meeting, Xi told Blinken that China is happy to see a confident, open, prosperous and thriving U.S. and hopes the U.S. can also look at China’s development in a positive light.
“This is a fundamental issue that must be addressed, just like the first button of a shirt that must be put right, in order for the China-U.S. relationship to truly stabilize, improve and move forward,” Xi stressed.
China is not afraid of competition, but competition should be about common progress, not a zero-sum game, he said.
Xi added that China is committed to non-alignment, and the U.S. should not form small circles.
“Both sides can have their own friends and partners and should refrain from targeting, opposing or damaging each other,” he said.
Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China, said if the U.S. insists on seeing China’s development negatively as a threat and adopting a zero-sum game mentality, there will be more and more problems in China-U.S. relations.
“That’s why China keeps urging the U.S. to change its mentality and change the way it views China and the perspective it views China-U.S. relations,” Wang told CGTN.
Xi’s meeting with Blinken is a clear signal that China attaches great importance to China-U.S. relations and China looks forward to joint efforts from both countries to stabilize the ties and get them back on the right track, said Su Xiaohui, deputy director of the Department for American Studies of China Institute of International Studies.
“It’s a very clear signal to the international community that China would like to work with the U.S. instead of taking a rivalry attitude to it,” Su said during an interview with CGTN.
Five-point consensus
China and the U.S. reached a five-point consensus as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Blinken on Friday morning.
Both sides agreed to continue to work hard to stabilize and develop China-U.S. relations, and speed up the implementation of the important common understandings reached by Xi and Biden in their summit meeting in San Francisco last November.
The two countries agreed to maintain high-level exchanges and contacts at all levels, including a scheduled visit to the U.S. by China’s special envoy for climate change Liu Zhenmin.
Following the talks, China and the U.S. also announced that they would hold the first meeting of the China-U.S. intergovernmental dialogue on artificial intelligence and hold a new round of China-U.S. consultations on Asia-Pacific affairs and China-U.S. maritime affairs, among other arrangements.
The two sides also said they will take measures to expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and maintain consultations on international and regional hotspot issues.
During the talks with Blinken, Wang reiterated the Taiwan question is the “first red line” that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations, and the U.S. should stop arming Taiwan and support China’s peaceful reunification.
He also criticized the U.S. measures to suppress China’s economy, from hyping up the false narrative of “overcapacity” in China, slapping sanctions on Chinese companies to imposing 301 tariffs that violate WTO rules.
The Chinese foreign minister also urged the U.S. to stop pressuring countries in the Asia-Pacific region to take sides, stop deploying land-based intermediate-range missiles, stop undermining China’s strategic security interests, and stop undermining the hard-won peace and stability in the region.
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