Beijing: At their Friday discussion, Chinese President Xi Jinping informed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that while China is ready to work with the US, such cooperation should be a “two-way street”.
Reiterating that Beijing and Washington should be partners rather than enemies, President Xi said that the complexity and multiplicity of the problems facing the world demand cooperation between the US and China.
Though collaboration should be reciprocal, China is ready to cooperate. Though China is not afraid of competition, it should be a game of mutual advancement rather than zero-sum. China is adamantly against alliance, and the US ought not to form little blocs. “While each side can have its friends and partners, it should not target, oppose, or harm the other,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated in a statement.
It said, “China welcomes a confident, open, prosperous, and thriving US and hopes the US will also look at China’s development in a positive light.”
“Over the past 45 years, the relationship has gone through wind and rain, and the two sides can draw a few important lessons: China and the United States 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 honour words with actions rather than say one thing but do another,” the statement said.
President Xi expressed additional hope that both nations will keep up their diligent efforts to genuinely stabilize, enhance, and advance bilateral relations.
As they say in China, “No progress means regress.” The relations between China and the US are covered by it too. “It is expected that the two teams will keep working hard to realize the San Francisco vision, so as to genuinely stabilize, improve, and advance the bilateral relations,” Xi said.
Blinken pointed out that the US and China have advanced their collaboration in areas including bilateral contacts, counter-narcotics, artificial intelligence, and people-to-people exchanges since Presidents Biden and Xi met in San Francisco. The statement said, “US and China working together is required due to the multiplicity and complexity of the challenges the world faces.”
As to the New York Times, the visit is intended to strengthen the strained ties between the two nations in spite of disagreements over the economic, national security, and geopolitical tensions.
In a release, the US State Department stated that the US and China held “in-depth, substantive, and constructive discussions” on a number of regional and international concerns as well as important bilateral priorities.
Secretary Blinken underlined that as part of appropriately regulating competition with the PRC (China), the US will keep using diplomacy to advance in areas of difference and collaboration that are important to the American people and the globe.
In addition, he urged for further advancement in carrying out the leaders’ Woodside Summit pledges on important issues, such as enhancing military-to-military communication to prevent miscalculation and conflict, launching discussions on managing the risk and safety issues posed by advanced forms of artificial intelligence, and advancing counternarcotics cooperation to disrupt the global flow of synthetic drugs – including fentanyl and their precursor chemicals – into the United States.
Blinken, who is making his second trip to China this year, declared earlier on April 24 that he was there “to make progress on issues that matter most to the American people, including curbing fentanyl trafficking.”
Following US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to China earlier this month comes Blinken’s visit.