BEIJING: President Xi Jinping has reiterated the need to follow the principles of “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation” in dealing with relations between China and the United States, saying that Beijing is willing to work with Washington to explore the right way for both countries to coexist based on such principles.
Xi made the remarks in a meeting with former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger in Beijing on Thursday. Kissinger, who celebrated his 100th birthday in May, has visited China more than 100 times since his first, secret trip to the country in 1971, which began the normalization of China-US relations.
His visit came with expectations of a potential shift in the strained China-US relationship amid a series of high-level official engagements between the two countries. US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry concluded his visit to China on Wednesday. In recent weeks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his first trip to China in his current capacity, followed by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
During the meeting, Xi said that 52 years ago, China and the US were at a crucial juncture. At that time, Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, as well as then US president Richard Nixon and Kissinger himself, with their extraordinary strategic vision, made the right decision for China-US cooperation, he said.
“It was also in July in the same place — Villa No 5 of Diaoyutai State Guesthouse — that you and Premier Zhou Enlai had a meeting, starting the normalization process of the two countries’ relations,” Xi said, adding that the 1971 meeting was of far-reaching historic significance. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
