Secretary Antony J. Blinken And People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping Before Their Meeting

PRESIDENT XI: (Via interpreter) Mr. Secretary of State, welcome back to China. This year marked the 45^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. Over the past 45 years, the relationship has gone through (inaudible) and just a number of important inspirations to offer. China and the United States should be partners rather than rivals. The two countries should 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.

I proposed mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and willing cooperation to be the three overarching principles. They are both lessons learned from the past and the guide for the future. At present, transformation not seen in a century is unfolding in a profound way, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent. It is the shared desire of both the two peoples and the international community to see China and the U.S. strengthen dialogue, manage differences, and advance cooperation.

I've said many times before that the planet is big enough to accommodate the common development and respective prosperity of China and the U.S. China is happy to see the confident, open, prosperous, and thriving United States. We hope 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.

When President Biden and I met in San Francisco last year, we launched the San Francisco vision that is future oriented. In the last couple of months, the two teams have followed upon our common understandings, maintained communication in various areas, and made some good progress, but there are still issues to be addressed (inaudible) require further efforts. Your visit this time was agreed upon between President Biden and I in our phone call several weeks ago. I hope you will find it productive.

Please convey my regards to President Biden. So much for my opening remarks.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Mr. President, thank you very much. Thank you for receiving us today. It's very good to be back in Beijing. President Biden asked me to return here to follow up on the important agenda that you both set in San Francisco to seek to deepen areas of cooperation as well as to manage responsibly the differences that we have. And I think we've seen progress in these areas of cooperation, particularly restoring military-to-military communications, on counternarcotics, on thinking together about the future of artificial intelligence, and working to strengthen our people-to-people ties.

We are committed to maintaining and strengthening the lines of communication between us to advance that agenda and, again, to deal responsibly with our differences so that we avoid any miscommunications, any misperceptions, any miscalculations.

I had a very good day yesterday in Shanghai. I had the opportunity to spend time with the Party Secretary Chen as well as to visit with Chinese and American students who were studying together at the NYU Shanghai campus, and to talk to our business community all about ways to deepen the ties between us.

Today I had very extensive and I think very candid and constructive exchanges with Director Wang Yi, where we covered the many bilateral, regional, and global issues that we have to contend with. And I also appreciated the opportunity to see Councilor Wang Xiaohong to look at the cooperation that we're developing on counternarcotics - something that you and President Biden agreed was vital.

In all of these areas, again, we are committed to responsibly managing the relationship. I very much appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today and to carry forward the discussion. Thank you.