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Xi Jinping says willing to work with the US for mutual benefit
Beijing and Washington have been sparring over multiple issues including Taiwan and China’s stubborn support to Russia over its Ukraine invasion
BEIJING: President Xi Jinping has said China is willing to work with the US to find the “right way to get along with each other in the new era”, Chinese state media reported on Thursday, ahead of a possible meeting between Xi and US President Joe Biden at an international summit in November.
“China stands ready to work with the US to find the right way to get along with each other in the new era on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, which will benefit not only the two countries but also the whole world,” Xi was quoted as saying by Chinese state media in a message to an event held by the National Committee on US-China Relations (NCUSCR) on Wednesday.
Beijing and Washington have been sparring over multiple issues including Taiwan and China’s stubborn support to Russia over its Ukraine invasion.
Differences between Beijing and Washington have spilled over to the arena of global geopolitics where, broadly, China and Russia are being looked at as a bloc taking on US-led Western countries.
Xi seemed to acknowledge that binary in his message to the NCUSCR.
“Noting that the world today is neither tranquil nor peaceful, Xi said closer communication and cooperation between China and the US, both as major countries, will help bring greater stability and certainty to the world and promote world peace and development,” CGTN, China’s official English television channel, said in a report.
Xi said he hoped that the NCUSCR would continue to play an active role, helping the bilateral relations return to the track of healthy and stable development.
The message was Xi’s first overture to the US and Biden after securing a precedent-breaking third term as leader of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) earlier this week.
In his speech at the key CPC conclave, where he was announced CPC chief for the third term, Xi, without mentioning the US directly, denounced foreign interference over Taiwan and said China would never renounce the right to use force to reunify the self-governed island.
Biden on Wednesday also said, “the US does not seek conflict with China”.
Biden, meeting his top military advisers, said on Wednesday that the US does not seek conflict with China and that Chinese President Xi Jinping knows this, according to a Reuters report from Washington.
Xi and Biden have spoken on phone and online but have never met in person since the latter took office in January last year.
The two leaders are expected to attend a G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November, but no information has been officially released on the possibility of a meeting between them.
China is yet to confirm whether Xi will attend the summit but indications are that it could be his first major appearance at a global multilateral forum after emerging as the country’s most powerful leader in decades earlier this week.
