US President Donald Trump meets with President Xi Jinping's special envoy and Vice-Premier Liu He at the White House on May 17, 2018. [Photo/Donald Trump's Twitter account]

US President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping's special envoy and Vice Premier Liu He at the White House on Thursday.

Liu arrived in Washington, DC, on Tuesday afternoon for economic and trade consultations with the US side at the invitation of the US government.

Liu said China is willing to work together with the US to address the trade and economic issues which concern both countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, making sure that the bilateral trade and economic cooperation continues to be the propeller for China-US relations.

He said that China-US relations have made major positive progress with the joint leadership of the two heads of state.

He added that the development of China-US relations is at an important stage. Both sides should work together with mutual respect to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral ties.

Trump said the two sides should strengthen investment and cooperation in energy and manufacturing, expand trade in agricultural products and market access, beef up cooperation in IPR protection and bring more benefits to the people of both countries.

He said maintaining good economic and trade cooperation matters a lot to both countries, and hoped trade delegations of both countries can work together to deal with conflicts in the bilateral economic and trade relations.

He also said that he highly valued the good working relationship and personal friendship with President Xi Jinping, and he would like to maintain close communication with President Xi and jointly advance the sustained development of US-China relations.

US Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the US trade representative Robert Lighthizer also attended the meeting. 

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