Chinese Ambassador Calls for Healthy, Steady Sino-US Ties

China and the United States need to build up a healthy and steady relationship characterized by a constructive and cooperative spirit, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Yang Jiechi said Thursday in Washington.

Speaking at a welcome luncheon hosted by the National Committee on US-China Relations, the newly-appointed Chinese ambassador said Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen's recent visit to Washington has "set a positive tone for our relationship with the new US administration."

Qian paid a visit to the United States from March 18 to 24, during which he met with US President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior officials. This was the first high-level meeting between leaders of the two nations since President Bush took office in January.

"President Jiang Zemin and President Bush are keeping in close touch by correspondence, and consensus has been reached in pushing forward the friendship (between the two countries). Vice Premier Qian came to this country just to carry out this consensus," Yang said.

"I think it is a good beginning, and there will be more meetings to follow," he added.

Yang urged people of vision in both countries to adopt a "forward-looking attitude" and never to be left behind in " yesterday's age."

"We're no longer in the Cold War era. We're in a new age and in the new millennium, and we're dealing with a new administration here in the United States .. and we should forge a constructive and cooperative relationship between us," he said.

The ambassador called for activism as well in enhancing Sino-US ties. "You need to push forward, just like a furnace, you have to fuel it with coal, just like a plant, you have to water it day by day, otherwise, the furnace would be trashed and the plant would wither away," he said.

In his speech, Yang also emphasized the "commonality of interests" between China and the United States, which he believed "should guide us in our efforts toward a more constructive relationship between our two countries."

"There are so many opportunities there to be tapped, and I believe that a strong economic tie between China and the United States is in our mutual interest," he said.

Yang said China "has taken off, and I believe that in the next 20 or 30 years, American companies will benefit even more from their trade ties with China."

Referring to the trade deficit dispute between the two countries, Ambassador Yang pledged to do his best to introduce more American products to China, but he also urged the Americans to export more value-added high-tech products to narrow the trade gap.

"We cannot just import your oranges and wheat. We cannot simply drink away or eat away your deficits. There needs to be some high-tech business between us as well. If you don't come, the Germans and the French would come in," Yang told the American audience.

But the Chinese ambassador stressed that the "commonality of interests" goes far beyond bilateral trade and economic links.

China and the United States have "collaborated very well in a constructive spirit" for maintaining peace and stability in the Korean Peninsular and for overcoming the financial crisis in East

Asia, he said.

Touching on the Taiwan issue, Yang expressed his belief that "as long as the one-China policy is observed, as long as the three joint communiques are abided by, our relationship (with the United States) will continue to move forward on a steady and healthy basis."

On the human rights issue, Yang pointed out that China has been able to lift about 200 million people, about the total population in the United States, out of poverty in the last decades.

In the meantime, he noted, "there is room for improvement in human rights in China" because "no country is perfect."

He noted that the Chinese people, the youngsters in particular, strongly support the government's efforts to bid for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

"If the Chinese people think that to host the Olympics is good for China, this is their view, this is their human rights. I don't think anybody should take away your human rights and say that he will provide human rights for you," Yang said.

"There are problems in our relations. But there are so many positive things in our relationship as well," the ambassador noted. He declared that the relationship between the two countries has "made a good start."






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