Engagement key for stable ties with US

With a number of high-level meetings held in China recently, Beijing has welcomed a large wave of politicians, businesspeople and scholars from the United States in a lead-up to a series of talks with senior Chinese leaders and officials.

Amid the frequent China-US interactions this spring, strong signals and willingness have come from both sides for stabilizing the general setting of bilateral cooperation.

In recent days, prominent figures such as Premier Li Qiang and Vice-Premier He Lifeng, as well as Liu Jianchao, minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and Wang Wentao, minister of commerce, have held separate meetings with US guests from various sectors.

Analysts said such a high frequency of meetings at this point in time is aimed at keeping the communication afloat, given the recent trade wars waged by Washington around the world and the additional tariffs it has threatened to impose next month.

The US side should move toward the same goal as China, and the two countries should make the pie of their pragmatic cooperation even bigger in spite of rising difficulties in bilateral ties, the analysts said.

The latest high-level contacts took place on Wednesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where senior diplomat Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, met with Evan Greenberg, executive vice-chair of the National Committee on US-China Relations.

Wang defined current China-US relations as being "at a critical juncture regarding the direction to be taken" and said that "the two sides should follow the key consensus and vision of the two heads of state, strengthen exchanges, enhance understanding, avoid miscalculation and manage differences".

China is willing to "engage in dialogue and consultation with the US side and address the legitimate concerns of each side based on the principle of equality and the spirit of mutual respect", he added.

Greenberg said, "China needs peace and prosperity, America needs peace and prosperity, and we need to be able to pursue our visions of greatness, each of us in harmony with the other."

On Sunday, Premier Li met with US Senator Steve Daines and a group of US corporate executives who were in Beijing to attend the China Development Forum 2025. Li stressed that "there are no winners in trade wars".

Daines, a Republican from Montana, is the first member of the US Congress to visit China since US President Donald Trump took office in January.

In a separate meeting with Daines on Saturday, Vice-Premier He said that China firmly opposes the approach of politicizing or weaponizing economic and trade issues, and the two countries "have many common interests and broad space for cooperation".

Annual bilateral trade between China and the US exceeded $680 billion last year, and about 73,000 US companies are currently investing and operating in China.

Jake Werner, director of the East Asia program at the Washington-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said, "I hope that we can deepen our friendship, increase the number of exchanges, so we can better understand each other, and that we do this in order to confront our problems."

Yu Yunquan, vice-president of China International Communications Group and president of the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies, noted that the new US administration has taken many new policies and that "uncertainties in China-US relations have increased".

How Beijing and Washington develop their relationship is being closely watched by the international community, he emphasized.

"The two countries can become partners that support each other and achieve prosperity together. They should choose to have dialogue rather than confrontation," he added.

Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, during his meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook in Beijing on Monday, said China stands ready to work with the US to create a more stable policy environment for businesses through equal dialogue. He said their talks were "in-depth and pragmatic".

John Quelch, executive vice-chancellor and American president of Duke Kunshan University, welcomed the "very clear statement" of fiscal and monetary policy made by senior Chinese officials at the China Development Forum, and he endorsed Beijing's steps to boost the confidence of multinational companies regarding investing more in China.

"China, with 1.4 billion people, is exceptional and important to the global economy," he added.