The Changing Face of China-U.S. Relations

When Comrade Deng Xiaoping visited the United States, I was fortunate to be able to attend an event held in his honor. There I witnessed the historic start of bilateral relations between China and the United States. In 2005, I again had the opportunity as China’s ambassador to the U.S. to experience firsthand the development and change in China-U.S. relations.

Over the past 30 years, China and the U.S. have moved from a distanced and confrontational attitude to a willingness to seek dialog and cooperation, from developing mutually beneficial business relationships to collaboratively responding to challenges of an increasingly global nature. The two countries’ relationship has achieved historic importance and has already become one of the most vital, influential, potent bilateral relationships in the world today. It brings great benefit not only to the peoples of the two countries involved but has also powerfully advanced world peace and development.

Currently, the China-U.S. relationship is in an important transitional phase. This April, at their first meeting in London, Chairman Hu Jintao and President Obama made a strong joint effort to reach a consensus on how the China-U.S. relationship should look in the 21st century; the two leaders outlined a direction for the development Sino-U.S. relations and laid out their goals for the coming years.

The two countries have already established over 60 various mechanisms for negotiation and discussion and have initiated effective coordination and cooperation around international and regional issues such as anti-terrorism, nonproliferation, climate change, and other global issues. In 2008, personnel exchanges between the countries surpassed two million people. Of the students China sends abroad, nearly one third go to the United States; there are currently over 12,000 American students studying in China.

The Sino-American trade relationship is strongly complementary. Its cooperative foundation is profound and its development is rapid. Our partnership has evolved into a pattern of interdependence, mutual benefit, and common development. Currently China and the U.S. are each other’s second largest trading partners; China is America’s third largest export market and the U.S. is China’s second largest export market. In 2008, combined trade between the two countries reached a value of $333.7 billion, over 130 times the amount at the opening up of relations between the countries.

Against the current backdrop of the economic crisis, the significance of China-U.S. trade cooperation has become increasingly prominent. China welcomes the American economic stimulus plan and hopes that these measures will continue to achieve results. We are willing to continue to strengthen our coordination of macroeconomic policy with the United States, to expand trade and investment cooperation, to push forward reform of the international financial system, to strengthen financial oversight, to work together to protect the stability of international finance, and to actively promote worldwide economic recovery.

Over the past few years, we have vigorously endorsed high-level bilateral contact between China and the U.S. as well as interaction at every other level. In addition, we have made full use of high-level bilateral dialog mechanisms for economic cooperation and maintained deep contact with the U.S. government, Congress, and regional and business leaders. We have also made it clear that the Chinese government upholds a policy of openness and reform, walking the path of peaceful development, and pursuing a course of mutually beneficial opening up.

China has adopted a series of important measures to promote smooth and more rapid economic development and has joined hands with the international community to advocate cooperation in these current hard times. China is expanding cooperation and increasing trust while reducing misgivings. We are working to seriously analyze the advantages for both sides as far as an economic relationship is concerned, taking the initiative to serve as a bridge and provide good service for American business and finance in order to expand domestic enterprises.

The two countries are promoting joint policies regarding energy, environmental protection as well as other areas and are striving to nurture new points of cooperation. China has closely followed the developing economic trends in both the U.S. and throughout the world and has used this information to formulate an effective response to the domestic crisis. Well functioning embassies and consulates maintain contact mechanisms and steadfastly protect Chinese citizens’ and businesses’ legal rights in the United States.

In today’s international situation, profound and complex changes continue to occur; under the circumstances of a deepening and spreading financial crisis, the responsibilities of China and the United States to protect world peace and stability are even greater, even as our common interests gradually increase in number and our room for cooperation remains extremely broad.

Leaders of the two countries maintain high-level exchanges and soon the first China-U.S. strategic and economic dialog will be held in Washington D.C. The unprecedented depth and breadth of these important diplomatic activities will continue to develop into the future and have profound, long-term significance as well as immediate practical impact.

We believe that as long as the two sides abide by the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, grasp the big picture, seize their opportunities, strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation at all levels and in all areas, deepen communication and coordination about important global and regional issues, and handle appropriately the most sensitive issues, the relationship between the two countries will continue to develop healthily and steadily into the future.