For better Sino-US ties

Updated: 2012-02-13 08:10

(China Daily)

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Vice-President Xi Jinping's five-day official visit to the United States from Monday starts this year's high-level interactions between China and the US.

Both countries have attached great importance to Xi's visit, because it is meant to further advance their cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit. The new tone for China-US ties was set by President Hu Jintao and US President Barack Obama when Hu paid a state visit to the US at the beginning of last year.

Xi is expected to settle the details of bilateral relations with US officials so that the two sides can fulfill the commitments they have made and expand their ties further.

China-US relations have progressed beyond imagination and the friendship between peoples of the two countries has deepened greatly since Xi's last visit to the US 27 years ago. That the average one-day bilateral trade volume is more than $1.2 billion today is just one proof for that.

Xi is expected to discuss bilateral ties, and international and regional issues of common concern with high-ranking US officials, including Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In-depth consultations will help each country understand where the other stands and pave the way for better cooperation.

Xi's visit is also expected to convey to the American leaders China's concerns over politicization of bilateral trade, including restrictions on the export of US high-tech products to China and the obstacles Chinese companies face when it comes to investing in the US. Needless to say that both sides will benefit from their removal.

We hope that Xi's visit helps strengthen mutual confidence between Beijing and Washington and make their interactions smoother.

US arms sales to Taiwan and its attempt to contain China in the Asia-Pacific region are two major factors preventing the deepening of China-US ties. More face-to-face interactions between leaders of the two countries and between the two peoples are needed to remove the "trust deficit". Therefore, the two sides should use Xi's visit to acquaint themselves with each other's sensitivities.

Given that Sino-US ties are important for the rest of the world, too, Beijing and Washington should effectively coordinate over pressing issues such as the global financial crisis, climate change, the Korean Peninsula denuclearization issue, the Iranian nuclear crisis and the Syrian question.

We hope Xi is able to convince the American leaders and people that the only way to move forward is cooperation and respect for each other's interests, for that is the trend of the times. And we believe that Xi's visit to the US will be a great success.

(China Daily 02/13/2012 page8)