BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the US from September 23 to 25 at the invitation of US President Donald Trump, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Monday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
During his visit, President Xi will have in-depth exchange of views with President Trump on major issues concerning bilateral ties and world peace and development, according to information released by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun on Monday.
Guo said head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance to China-US relations, and the exchange of visits by the two presidents within the span of half a year will mark a milestone of historic significance. He noted that China will work with the US to enrich the dimensions of the China-US constructive relationship of strategic stability, strengthen dialogue and cooperation, and properly manage differences, so as to deliver greater benefits to our two peoples and further contribute to world peace, stability and prosperity.
The visit comes just months after Trump paid a state visit to China in May, making the two-way presidential visits within half a year a notable development in bilateral ties. During Trump’s May visit, the two presidents agreed on a new vision of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability, providing strategic guidance for bilateral relations over the next three years and beyond.
Against an international landscape profoundly different from that surrounding Xi’s previous US state visit in 2015, experts from both China and the US reached by the Global Times said that the significance of the upcoming visit extends well beyond any single issue on the bilateral agenda.
Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times that the visit is crucial for both China-US relations and global stability. He said that the visit will continue the momentum in bilateral engagement following Trump’s trip to China in May while demonstrating a willingness to keep the relationship stable despite differences.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of The Kuhn Foundation, told the Global Times that regular meetings between the top leaders of China and the US send an important signal that both sides want to maintain a stable relationship.
Stability does not mean that the numerous problems between the two countries have disappeared, nor does it guarantee long-term certainty; however, in an increasingly unsettled international environment, the willingness of the two leaders to meet demonstrates their commitment to maintaining a stable relationship, he noted.
“It’s a dangerously different world in which we’re living. This is especially why stable US-China relations are critical: to keep the world from getting any worse,” Kuhn said.
Geopolitical differences will continue to exist and need to be contained, he said, noting that the two countries should seek practical progress in areas that are non-strategic, non-threatening and non-sensitive.
Even relatively small positive steps could represent meaningful achievements under the current circumstances, he remarked. –The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
