On January 9, 2024, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng delivered a speech at the Carter Center Forum commemorating the 45th anniversary of the establishment of U.S.-China relations.

Ambassador Xie said that China and the United States need to focus on common interests and let dialogue and cooperation define the bilateral relationship. It is common interests that brought China and the United States together 45 years ago. It is also common interests that have kept driving our relationship forward. The world today has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation. As permanent members of the Security Council and the two largest economies, China and the United States have only more, rather than fewer, common interests and shared responsibilities in safeguarding world peace and promoting development for all. Whether it is in bilateral areas such as economy and trade, energy, agriculture, law enforcement, education and people-to-people exchanges, or in combating global challenges like climate change and public health, or on international and regional hotspots such as the Middle East, Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula, there are a lot of things that China and the United States can and should coordinate and cooperate on. 

Ambassador Xie said that China has recently taken a series of positive measures to further open up and facilitate China-U.S. exchanges and cooperation. We have authorized Mastercard NUCC to conduct bank card clearing operations in China, and approved Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. All Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in China are back in service. We are discussing new plans for cooperation on panda conservation. After the U.S. side lifted sanctions on relevant Chinese authorities, China has been conducting campaigns against fentanyl and its precursor chemicals. The two sides are discussing the establishment of a working group on counternarcotics cooperation. On the basis of equality and mutual respect, General Liu Zhenli, Chief of the Joint Staff Department of China’s Central Military Commission, had a video teleconference with General Charles Q. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States. The ongoing China-U.S. Defense Policy Coordination Talks are discussing plans for mil-to-mil exchanges for this year. The two sides have launched a working group on enhancing climate action, and jointly worked for the success of COP28. The two sides have also agreed on government talks on artificial intelligence (AI) to explore exchanges and cooperation in the area, enhance global AI governance, and jointly manage risks and challenges brought by the technology, so that the Terminator scenario where machines wage war against humans will not become a reality. It is hoped that the U.S. side will also take real actions in the same spirit to address China’s concerns. It is important to start with small steps which can go a long way, pursue reciprocity and mutual benefit, both give and take, fully utilize the restored and new mechanisms in foreign policy, economy, finance, commerce, agriculture and other fields, expand the list of cooperation and shorten the negative list, and solve rather than create problems.