Experts pool wisdom for better China-U.S. relations

BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Experts and scholars from China and overseas on Tuesday gathered online and offline in Beijing to voice their hopes and provide recommendations for better China-U.S. relations.

Participants at a China-U.S. public diplomacy conference held at Renmin University of China have underlined the significance of China-U.S. relations for global development, calling for increased efforts toward collaboration and managing disagreements.

Cui Tiankai, a former Chinese ambassador to the United States, emphasized the importance of translating the "San Francisco vision" reached by the leaders of the two countries into tangible actions.

He went on to call on people from across various sectors to reject the Cold War mentality and zero-sum competition, and transcend the pitfalls in reality or imagination to pave a new path for international relations, especially relations between major countries.

John Milligan-Whyte, chairman of the America-China Partnership Foundation, highlighted the need to promote a new school of theories on U.S.-China relations.

Contrary to the "old school of U.S.-China relations," the new one focuses exclusively on understanding and explaining why and how the economic growth and national security of the world's two largest economies can and must be sufficiently aligned to support each other and peacefully coexist, he said at the event.

Experts said that vigorously promoting cultural, scientific, and educational exchanges could be a solution to address the challenges of China-U.S. relations.

Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, underscored the importance of maintaining people-to-people and technological exchanges between China and the United States.

He also highlighted the significance of strengthening cooperation and increasing mutual trust in fields of common interests, such as climate change, epidemic prevention and control, and risk management over artificial intelligence.

Both China and the United States, guided by common interests, should be aware that their development cannot be based on causing harm to each other, said Prof. Wang Fan, president of China Foreign Affairs University, noting that both countries must effectively deal with unforeseen events.

Speaking at the event, John L. Thornton, chair emeritus of the Brookings Institution, said that the world will face multiple challenges, including the rising world population, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, climate change, the impact of pandemics, and terrorism, among others.

Cooperation among the world's leading countries is needed to address those challenges, according to Thornton.

It is widely known that "100 percent of the world's global problems will be solved faster, or managed better, if the world's two leading countries, the United States and China, work together," he said.