This Day, That Year

Item from April 28, 1984, in China Daily: Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang shakes hands with US President Ronald Reagan before talks ... Hu said China's independent foreign policy "is not an expediency, but a long-term policy based on decades of experience".

China, the world's second-largest economy, has an increasingly important voice in global affairs, including more exchanges conducted with the US in various fields.

There has also been increasing interaction between top Chinese and US leaders. On Nov 11, 2014, President Xi Jinping met US President Barack Obama at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in downtown Beijng, as seen in the photo on the left.