Xi' s US visit productive, steering major-country ties to maturity
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E-mail Xinhua, September 28, 2015
During his first state visit to the United States on Sept. 22-25, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama discussed a variety of issues crucial to the development of bilateral ties and reached broad consensus on continuing to build a new model of major-country relationship between the two countries.
The Chinese government and Xi himself have been explicit about the purpose of this U.S. trip -- to promote mutual trust and win-win cooperation between the two global heavyweights.
Increasing interdependence between the two countries and their interwoven interests make China-U.S. confrontation unbearable for both sides with strong implications for the rest of the world, as the two countries jointly account for a third of global economic output, a fourth of global population and a fifth of global trade.
New paradigm of major-country relations
Building a new model of major-country relationship with the United States that features non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation is the priority of China's foreign policy, Xi said in a speech in Seattle, the first stop of his landmark U.S. visit.
On many occasions during the visit, he stressed the vital importance of steering bilateral relations away from mistakes of strategic miscalculation and towards closer cooperation.
The Chinese leader rejected the notion held by believers of the Thucydides trap that the two countries are doomed to clash.
He put forward a four-point proposal for the two sides to avoid the old-pattern collision between a rising power and an established power.
"These are very thoughtful. The first -- to read each other's strategic intentions correctly, is especially important," said Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Kissinger Associates and former undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.
It is crucial to avoid misunderstandings and help ensure a dialogue that is deeper than "just responding to headlines or assumptions," Hormats added.
With the right choices, conflict is not inevitable between the two leading global players, Harvard professor Joseph Nye said.
As many experts and observers have noted, China and the United States have far more common interests than differences and the world's most important bilateral relationship is heading towards maturity.
The fact that the two sides have taken concrete steps to tackle some of the most sensitive issues in bilateral ties shows that both countries do not want to let specific problems poison the overall atmosphere of China-U.S. relations.
Productive and fruitful
The summit of Xi and Obama is deemed as "extremely productive and fruitful" as it has yielded a series of agreements and extensive consensuses on boosting cooperation on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues.
A long list of 49 tangible results was produced by the two sides, with new and important progress in such areas as investment, people-to-people exchanges, climate change, and coordination and cooperation in multilateral affairs.
The two heads of state issued a China-U.S. joint presidential statement on climate change, reiterating their resolve to work together towards an ambitious, successful outcome of the upcoming climate conference in Paris.
The statement, a highlight of Xi' s visit to Washington, specifies new steps the two sides will take to deliver on pledges made last year to slash their greenhouse gas emissions.
These include China' s decision to launch a national carbon cap-and-trade system in 2017 to help contain the country' s emissions, and establish a 20-billion-yuan (3.1-billion-U.S.-dollar) fund to help other developing countries combat and adapt to climate change.
Development charity Oxfam described China' s significant financial pledge as a "game-changer," and the environmental group World Resources Institute said it was a "watershed moment" in decades of climate agreement negotiations.
Not shying away from hot-button issues, the two sides also reached important consensus on their joint fight against cyber crimes, agreeing to step up investigation assistance and information sharing on cyber crime cases, and establish a high-level dialogue mechanism to address the issue.
The agreement on cyber security has been applauded by experts as a "significant and welcome development."
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