Xi-Trump Summit Guided Promising Direction for China-U.S. Relations ^Featured

It was the first China-U.S. summit since the U.S. new administration came into power. The interaction of the two leaders was viewed as the indicator of bilateral relations’ future.

At the meetings, President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump had in-depth exchanges of views on China-US relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern, reaching many important consensus. Both sides believed that the meetings were positive and productive.

First of all, the meetings strengthened mutual understanding and trust of the two heads of state. President Xi and President Trump shared governance theory and introduced to each other their respective ongoing priority agendas, which deepened mutual understanding and establishes good working relationship.

President Xi introduced Chinese history, condition and the achievements from reform and opening-up to President Trump.

He noted that China firmly follows the peaceful development path and rejects the theory of I-win-you-lose and the old way of power leading to hegemony. Instead, China devotes itself into promoting global peace, stability and prosperity. President Trump said that China owns great and amazing civilization.

President Xi leads China to make many achievements, which wins respects of the world. He said that the relationship developed by President Xi and himself is outstanding. He is willing to continually cooperate with President Xi.

He accepted President Xi's invitation for a state visit to China later this year. Both leaders had agreed to keep close contacts through meetings, calls and letters. And actually they already had a conversation on the phone on April 12.

Secondly, the meetings confirmed the development direction and principles of China-US relations. Both leaders highly applauded the historic progress of China-US relations and agreed to promote greater development on a new starting point so as to bring more benefits to people of both countries and the whole world.

President Xi reiterated that cooperation is the only right choice for China and the US and that both countries are capable of becoming good partners. He pointed that we have a thousand reasons to make China-US relations a success and no reason to make bilateral relations a failure. Both sides should focus on the fruits of cooperation and make a checklist of key cooperation areas so as to generate more early harvests.

President Xi stressed that it is natural for China and the US to have divergences and the key was to properly deal with sensitive issues and control divergences constructively. Both sides agreed to expand mutually beneficial cooperation fields through joint efforts and control divergences on the basis of mutual respects.

President Trump noted that the US stands ready to cooperate with China to eliminate those factors and problems affecting bilateral relations, which will realize greater development of US-China relations. Bilateral relations will certainly be better.

Thirdly, the meetings laid out priority fields and mechanisms of bilateral cooperation. China and the US agreed to promote healthy development of two-way investment and trade as well as advance two-way investment agreement negotiations. They also agreed to explore practical cooperation in many fields including energy and infrastructure.

China explained the essence of bilateral mutually beneficial and win-win investment and trade. China reiterated that China does not seek trade surplus on purpose, and hopes that the US could ease its restrictions on Chinese exports so as to further balance bilateral trade.

Mutual trust in military and security is the foundation of China-US strategic mutual trust. Both sides stand ready to strengthen communication on bilateral militaries and would make full use of the upcoming platform of joint staff dialogue mechanism.

Both sides are willing to deepen cooperation in many fields as law enforcement, legislation and cyber security. If people of both countries enjoy closer relationship, both countries can have a much better relationship. Both sides are willing to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges so as to enhance the foundation of bilateral relations.

Fourthly, the two heads of state had announced the establishment of four high-level dialogue mechanisms including diplomatic and security dialogue, comprehensive economic dialogue, law enforcement and cyber security dialogue, and social and people-to-people and cultural dialogue.

During the meetings, the two sides initiated diplomatic and security dialogue and comprehensive economic dialogue, conducting in-depth exchanges, clearing working agenda and the direction of efforts.

The two heads of state were satisfied with the launching and initial success of these mechanisms, which will play an important and positive role in advancing communication, enhancing mutual trust, expanding cooperation and controlling differences between the two sides.

Fifthly, the meetings strengthened communication and coordination on international and regional affairs. During the meeting, the two heads of state exchanged in-depth views on international and regional issues of common concern such as the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and agreed to expand cooperation at regional and global level to contribute to the maintenance of regional and world peace, stability and prosperity.

President Xi pointed out that China and the US should and could cooperate in many areas with regard to both global and regional affairs. Strengthening bilateral communication and cooperation is not only in the interests of our two countries, but also beneficial to the world.

President Trump said that, as two major world powers with tremendous responsibilities, the US and China need to maintain communication and coordination on important issues to do great things.

The meetings of the two heads of state are very important, timely and effective, which has achieved the original goal of enhancing mutual understanding, establishing mutual trust and reaching common consensus. This summit not only achieved a smooth transition of China-US relations, but also served as a good start for bilateral relations in the new era.

Exchanges between major powers not only feature cooperation but also have disagreements. In terms of China-US relations, the economic complementarity between the two sides is far greater than the competition, and the need for cooperation is far greater than the differences.

The important value and historic significance of this meeting was that the two sides have charted the course for bilateral relations from the highest level, and set up a framework and made the top design for the future of China-US relations.

We have every reason to believe that this summit will play an important role in overcoming difficulties, eliminating interferences and moving forward on the right track for bilateral relations. At the same time, it will also have a significant impact on promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific and the world at large.