SAN DIEGO, the United States, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States should enhance strategic coordination on their world views, and build a bilateral relationship based on coordination, cooperation and stability, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said here Saturday.
Speaking at the annual Forum on U.S.-China relations organized by the University of California, San Diego, Cui said that as the most important bilateral relationship in the world, the China-U.S. relationship is "at a critical juncture."
"Today's world is experiencing complex and profound changes," Cui said, adding that "the international community has to make a choice between cooperation and confrontation, between multilateralism and unilateralism and between openness and seclusion, and in this process, the world view of each and every country has been put to test."
Cui said that China has made an unwavering choice of working to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
"We firmly believe that a sound and steady China-U.S. relationship is an integral and natural part of the blueprint of a community with a shared future for mankind. Our two countries can get things done if we go for cooperation," he said.
The ambassador pointed out one essential subject for the Americans, which is whether China and the United States can accommodate each other's world views, and whether the world can and should become a community with a shared future.
"Different world views on the part of America will bring about very divergent perspectives and conclusions about China," he said.
"If we view the world as a community with a shared future, we will realize that China-U.S. relations are no zero-sum game, and there will be no 'Thucydides trap' to speak of," he said.
"We will be free from the worries of 'decoupling' and trade war, and our economic complementarity will unlock enormous potential for cooperation," he said.
"Our interactions in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and other regions will not be dominated by competition," he said.
"China's Belt and Road Initiative will not be described as a 'debt trap' or a 'geopolitical scheme' as some people did and are still doing. Rather, it is a useful platform of cooperation for countries to promote connectivity and develop together," he added.
The ambassador said that both China and the United States are strong pillars of the existing international system, and that coordination and cooperation, not conflict or confrontation, are what the two countries should opt for.
Noting that the two countries signed the China-U.S. phase-one economic and trade agreement two weeks ago, Cui said that it is "a strong testament" to the extensive and crucial common interests between the two sides.
"Both countries stand to gain from cooperation and lose in confrontation. As long as our two sides follow the trend of the times and keep to the principles of mutual respect and equality, there will be no insurmountable difficulty or problem between us," he said.
"Going forward, we hope to strengthen strategic communication with the United States, rebuild the strategic framework of bilateral relations, enhance strategic coordination on our world views, and build a bilateral relationship based on coordination, cooperation and stability, so that our relations will return to the right track of win-win cooperation," he added.
