The China-U.S. relationship has come to a new crossroads and will likely open up a new window of hope, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Friday, calling on the United States to meet China halfway for the bilateral ties to regain sound and steady development at an early date.
"It is never too late to do the right thing," he said, expressing China's hope that the U.S. side will, by following the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, strengthen dialogue, focus on cooperation, and manage differences.
Zhao made the remarks when reviewing a historic visit in late January of 1979 by Deng Xiaoping to the United States as a guest of then U.S. President Jimmy Carter, not long after the two countries forged the diplomatic ties. Deng was the Chinese vice premier at the time.
"What has happened since then only serves to prove the absolute correctness in the two countries making this historic decision of establishing diplomatic relations," Zhao said, citing achievements in bilateral relations thanks to the concerted efforts made by both sides generation after generation.
The total economic aggregates of China and the United States account for a third of the world's total, contributing more than 50 percent to the world economic growth rate. Bilateral trade volumes, now taking up a fifth of the world's total, have increased by more than 250 times compared with the case when the two countries first established diplomatic relations.
"China and the U.S. also shoulder great responsibility on almost all global issues bearing on world peace and development. Facts have proven that when China and the U.S. cooperate, great things can be done to help not only the two countries but also the world," Zhao said.
He said in the past few years, China-U.S. relations have fallen into an unprecedented predicament, and the fundamental cause is the "utterly wrong China policies taken by the Trump administration."
"These policies negate all the bilateral cooperation outcomes born out of the 40-plus years of engagement, trample on decades of dedicated efforts made by those visionary Chinese and American leaders, statesmen and people from all walks of life to cultivate ties, and turn a blind eye to the fact that the international community strongly wishes to see peaceful co-existence of China and the U.S.," he said. "Such policies are unsustainable and unsupported."
China hopes the United States will choose to follow the trend of the times, heed the voices of the Chinese and American people and the international community, view China and China-U.S. relations in an objective and rational way, and work with China to get bilateral relations back on the right track of sound and steady development, Zhao said.
