Thirdly, President Xi's visit will be a people-first visit. China-US friendly relations are powered by the people, and rooted in the people. Forty-four years ago, the visit of the US table tennis team to China opened a new chapter in China-US friendly relations and contacts. Reform and opening up in China led to a new wave of thriving exchanges among the people and regions of the two countries.

Today, the two countries have established 43 sister province/state relations and 200 sister city relations. Last year, about 4.3 million mutual visits were made across the Pacific, and there is a flight between the two countries every 17 minutes. The number of students studying in each other's country has exceeded 500,000. China and the US are now each other's No.1 and No.2 sources of international students. More than 100,000 American students have studied in China and more than 10,000 American scholars and academics have made exchange visits to China. The US is now home to 100 plus Confucius Institutes and hundreds of thousands of American school graders are studying Chinese. Last year, during the meeting of the two presidents in Beijing, the two sides announced reciprocal visa arrangements for business, tourism and study purposes. This went a long way to promoting people-to-people exchanges and was warmly welcomed by the people of both countries.

A major highlight of President Xi's visit to the US will be his extensive outreach to the American people.

President Xi's visit will start from Seattle on the west coast where he will meet people from all walks of life. Throughout the visit, President Xi will devote a lot of time to reaching out to people in American cities and states, the business community, friendly groups, and a broad cross-section of American society. The President will deliver speeches to the general public, hold meetings with representatives of business leaders and have cordial exchanges with school faculties and students. The two sides will also announce a series of major measures, which will bring some further good news to students, tourists and other people traveling between the two countries. President Xi's visit will generate a new wave of interest in China and take people-to-people exchange to new heights.

Let me add that China's sustained development and growing cooperation between the two countries in economic, trade and other fields will continue to benefit the two peoples and make a tangible difference for them. For instance, in trade and investment, it is estimated that by 2022, China will become the world's biggest importer and China and the US are on track to becoming each other's biggest trading partner. US export to China is expected to surpass 530 billion US dollars and generate more than 3.34 million new jobs. According to the China-United States Exchange Foundation, by 2020, China's investment in the US will reach 200 billion US dollars and create 4 million new jobs for US workers.