Meeting the Press with Bush: Jiang Zemin's Opening Remarks

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 21, 2002

Meeting the Press with Bush: Jiang Zemin's Opening Remarks

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Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. President George W. Bush met the press after their formal talks at the Great Hall of the People Thursday morning. Following is the full text of Jiang's opening remarks:

First of all, on behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, I would like to express my warm welcome to President Bush's visit to China.

This is my second meeting with President Bush. Four months ago, we had a successful meeting during the APEC meetings in Shanghai.

In our talks today, President Bush and I reviewed 30 years of Sino-U.S. relations and had in-depth discussions on bilateral relations and the current international situation. We have reached consensus on many important issues and achieved positive results in many areas.

We hold the common view that, faced with the current complicated and constantly changing international situation, China and the United States, two countries with an important influence in the world, should reinforce their dialogues and cooperation, appropriately handle differences and jointly promote the development of Sino-U.S. constructive cooperation relations.

We agree to reinforce high-level strategic dialogues and contacts at different levels and between different departments, so as to increase mutual understanding and mutual trust. With thanks and pleasure, I accepted President Bush's invitation to visit the United States before attending APEC meetings in October this year in Mexico. At the invitation of Vice President Cheney, Vice President Hu Jintao will visit the United States in the near future.

We agree to actively carry out exchanges and cooperation in economic and trade, energy, science and technology, environment protection, prevention and treatment of AIDS, law enforcement and other fields, hold strategic dialogues on regional economic and financial issues, and will convene three joint meetings within this year on economy, trade, and science and technology respectively.

President Bush and I also had an in-depth discussion on the international anti-terror campaign, and agreed to step up consultations and cooperation in this regard on a two-way and mutually beneficial basis, and reinforce medium- and long-term mechanisms for anti-terror exchanges and cooperation between the two countries. We also exchanged views on a series of important international and regional issues, and decided to step up communication and coordination.

Appropriately handling the Taiwan question is the key to ensuring a steady development of Sino-U.S. relations. I explained to President Bush the Chinese government's basic position of " peaceful reunification; one country, two systems" regarding the settlement of the Taiwan question. President Bush stressed that the U.S. side will adhere to the One China policy and observe the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques. During the talks we both expressed opposition to "Taiwan independence" and the hope of solving the Taiwan question peacefully.

China and the United States have different conditions, and the existence of some differences is normal. President Bush and I discussed these problems candidly. As long as we both adhere to the spirit of mutual respect, equality, and seeking common ground while reserving differences, we could continuously reduce differences, have consensus on a broader range of issues and promote cooperation between the two countries.

I wish and believe that my meeting with President Bush will have a positive impact on the improvement and development of Sino- U.S. relations.

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