Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the afternoon of April 26.

Noting that this year marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, Xi said that over the past 45 years, the relationship had seen wind and rain, and that both sides can draw important lessons from the past.

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 saying one thing but doing another.

In the same boat

Xi said he proposed mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation as the three overarching principles for the relationship, which are both lessons learned from the past and a guide for the future.

Xi emphasized that in his phone call with President Joe Biden three weeks earlier, he had shared his thoughts on how to stabilize and develop China-U.S. relations in 2024, and underlined that the two sides should value peace, prioritize stability, and uphold credibility.

"The finer details will fall into place when they are aligned with the bigger picture," Xi stressed. The world today is undergoing changes unseen in a century. How to respond to these is a question of the times and of the world.

Xi said his answer is to build a community with a shared future for humanity, which has become a flag of China's foreign policy and has been welcomed by many countries.

Planet Earth is only this big and humanity faces many common challenges. As an old Chinese saying goes, "Passengers in the same boat should help each other," he added.

"Today, as I see it, dwellers of the same planet should help each other. We live in an interdependent world and rise, and fall, together. With their interests deeply intertwined, all countries need to build maximum consensus for win-win and all-win outcomes. This is the basic starting point for China's view of the world and the China-U.S. relationship," Xi said.

Xi underlined his opinion that major countries should behave in a manner befitting their status and act with open-mindedness and a sense of responsibility.

He said China and the U.S. should set an example in this regard, undertake responsibilities for maintaining world peace, create opportunities for the development of all countries, provide the world with public goods, and play a positive role in promoting global unity.

Pillars for relations

Xi underscored that in his meeting with President Biden in San Francisco, California, last November, he had proposed five pillars for China-U.S. relations: jointly developing a correct perception, jointly managing disagreements effectively, jointly advancing mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly shouldering responsibilities as major countries and jointly promoting people-to-people exchange.

These five pillars should serve as the underpinning for the mansion of China-U.S. relations. When the overarching principles are established, specific issues will become easier to address, Xi said.

"China is willing to cooperate, but cooperation should be a two-way street. China is not afraid of competition, but competition should be about progressing together instead of playing a zero-sum game," Xi said.

China is committed to non-alliance, and the U.S. should not create small blocs. While each side can have its friends and partners, it should not target, oppose or harm the other, he added.

"China welcomes a confident, open, prosperous and thriving U.S., and hopes the U.S. will also look at China's development in a positive light," said the Chinese president.

Xi stressed that, as a Chinese saying goes, "no progress means regress." This also applies to China-U.S. relations.

Noting that the stabilizing trend in China-U.S. relations did not happen easily, Xi said it is hoped that the two teams will continue working actively to follow through on the San Francisco Vision he and President Biden reached last year, which charts the direction for the healthy, stable and sustainable growth of bilateral relations, to truly stabilize, improve, and move forward the relationship.

Blinken conveyed Biden's greetings to Xi. He noted that since Biden and Xi met in San Francisco, the U.S. and China have made good progress in their cooperation in areas such as bilateral interactions, counter narcotics, artificial intelligence and people-to-people exchange.

The multiplicity and complexity of the challenges the world faces require the U.S. and China to work together. The Americans from all segments of society Xi had met during his visit had all expressed their hope to see China-U.S. relations improve, Blinken added.

The U.S. does not seek a new cold war, does not seek to change China's system, does not seek to suppress China's development, does not seek to revitalize its alliances against China, and has no intention to have a conflict with China, said Blinken.

The U.S. adheres to the one-China policy, Blinken said, adding that the U.S. hopes to maintain communication with the Chinese side, follow through on what the two presidents agreed on in San Francisco, seek more cooperation, avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation, responsibly manage differences, and achieve the stable development of U.S.-China relations. BR

This is an edited excerpt from a Xinhua News Agency report

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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Five-Point Consensus

Between China and the U.S.

On April 26, Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese Foreign Minister, held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, with the two sides reaching a five-point consensus based on a comprehensive exchange of views.

First, both sides agreed to continue to work hard to stabilize and develop China-U.S. relations in accordance with the guidance of the two heads of state. The two sides affirmed the positive progress made in dialogue and cooperation between China and the U.S. in various fields since the meeting in San Francisco, and agreed to speed up the implementation of the important consensus reached by the two heads of state in San Francisco.

Second, both sides agreed to maintain high-level exchanges and contacts at all levels. They will continue to allow the restored and newly established consultation mechanisms to play their role in the fields of diplomacy, economy, finance and commerce, continue to carry out exchanges between the two militaries, and further promote China-U.S. cooperation on drug control, climate change and artificial intelligence.

Third, the two sides announced that they would hold the first meeting of the China-U.S. intergovernmental dialogue on artificial intelligence, continue to advance consultations on the principles guiding China-U.S. relations, hold a new round of China-U.S. consultations on Asia-Pacific affairs and China-U.S. maritime affairs, and continue consular consultations. The anti-drug working group of the two countries will hold a senior officials meeting. The U.S. welcomes China's special envoy for climate change Liu Zhenmin to visit.

Fourth, the two sides will take measures to expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, welcome students from each other's countries and work together for the success of the 14th China-U.S. Tourism Leadership Summit to be held in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, later this month.

Fifth, the two sides will maintain consultations on international and regional hotspot issues and strengthen communication between the special envoys of both sides.