On June 7, 2023, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng delivered a keynote speech at the welcome event hosted by the U.S.-China Business Council.

Ambassador Xie said that China and the United States once had 100 plus dialogue mechanisms, but they have been shelved for reasons known to all. Two years ago, an American friend advised him not to use “dialogue”, because the word almost became a taboo in the U.S. He was bewildered. The Chinese side has always been open to dialogue. During the past two years and more, President Xi Jinping had six meetings and phone conversations with President Joe Biden. In preparation for their Bali meeting, the Chinese side had eight rounds, in total over 24 hours of consultations with American colleagues. Less than a month after the Bali summit, we invited Assistant Secretary Daniel Kritenbrink and then Senior Director Laura Rosenberger to Langfang, Hebei province, where the two sides had in-depth discussions for 10 hours. Soon afterwards, however, the unmanned airship incident and Tsai Ing-wen’s so-called “transit” via the United States again disrupted the positive agenda. The Chinese side was very much disappointed. The United States has recently expressed its intention to increase high-level contact and return to the Bali agenda. It has also expressed the hope to find a way to lower risk and stabilize and improve the relationship. The Chinese side takes these statements seriously, and has made positive response. Director Wang Yi, State Councilor Qin Gang and Minister Wang Wentao met with NSA Sullivan, Ambassador Burns and Secretary Raimondo respectively. Each of these meetings was candid, in-depth, substantive and constructive.

Ambassador Xie said that as a Chinese saying goes, “Good faith makes good things happen.” Dialogue should be based on mutual respect and aim at real results. It surely is not the right way to seek dialogue and cooperation while putting the other on the sanction list. Dialogue conducted only for its own sake will not work either. Saying one thing but doing another could only bring unintended results. For high-level interactions, whole-process management is essential — fostering good atmosphere in advance, accumulating outcomes in the process, and delivering on them afterwards.