Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday met separately
with US Vice President Dick Cheney and other top US officials, and
both sides agreed to improve bilateral relations.
Hu told Cheney that he had very good talks with US President
George W. Bush earlier in the day, during which they agreed that as
two important nations in the world, China and the US share a broad
range of common strategic interests.
Facing the new international situation, Hu said, the two nations
need to increase dialogue, expand consensus, enhance mutual trust
and deepen cooperation to advance bilateral constructive and
cooperative relations in the 21st century and to make new
contributions to promoting peace, stability and prosperity of the
Asia-Pacific region and the world as a whole.
Saying that the two nations have established sound, solid and
healthy relations, Cheney said the US-China relations are crucial
to the contemporary world and he is supportive of building
strategic relations between the two nations.
In a meeting with Senate President Pro Tempore Ted Stevens and
other US Congressional leaders, Hu expressed appreciation of their
long-time efforts to support the development of Sino-US
relations.
China attaches great importance to its communications with the
US Congress, Hu said.
More and more US lawmakers have acknowledged the importance of
China-US relations and put forward a series of proposals to advance
bilateral trade, cultural and educational exchanges, Hu said.
Hu voiced the hope that the US lawmakers will continue their
efforts to increase people-to-people exchanges of the two nations
and to contribute more to enhance mutual understanding and
friendship.
Stevens recalled his early years when he fought Japanese
invaders side by side with the Chinese people during World War
II.
He said he is glad to see the progress of China and the
development of US-China relations.
Stevens said the relationship between the two countries is a
global issue on which the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific
region and the whole world heavily depends.
The US Congressional leaders also expressed their views on how
to enhance the bilateral cooperation in energy, environmental
protection, space technology and other areas.
In a separate meeting, Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security
advisor, said that the Chinese president's successful visit will
further promote the positive relations which already exist between
the two nations and will serve as a reminder to the two peoples
that maintaining a sound bilateral relationship benefits both
sides.
During the meetings, Hu stressed that this visit has further
strengthened his belief that in the contemporary world, the US and
China share extensive and important common strategic interests.
He said the two nations should be not only stakeholders, but
also constructive cooperators.
Advancing mutually beneficial relations not only yields concrete
benefits for the two peoples, but also is of great importance to
peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region and the
world at large, Hu noted.
A healthy and stable development of China-US relations will
benefit the two peoples as well as all the people in the world, he
said.
The president was accompanied by Chinese State Councilor Tang
Jiaxuan at the meetings.
Hu arrived in Washington from Seattle on Wednesday evening and
held talks with President Bush on Thursday.
On Friday, Hu will deliver a speech at Yale University in New
Haven, Connecticut, before winding up his US trip.
(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2006)
