Everyday people crucial to Sino-US friendship

Top envoy speaks highly of roles civilians play in bilateral relations

Currently strained Sino-US relations need what Civil War-era United States president Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature", Beijing's top envoy to Washington Cui Tiankai said on Tuesday at the screening of a documentary on bilateral ties.

"Over the past year we have heard enough of trade war threats, assertions about strategic rivalry, saber rattling in the South China Sea and even unfounded accusations against Chinese students and scholars," Ambassador Cui said at the screening in Washington, which was followed by a panel discussion.