Beijing: Notwithstanding their competing interests, China and the US vowed to improve their ties and not allow persistent differences over Beijing’s maritime claims, cyberhacking and currency rates to impact a globally crucial relationship.
Warning of serious consequences if the conflict continued, Chinese President Xi Jinping told an annual meeting of top diplomats and officials of the two countries that “China-US confrontation, to the two countries and the world, would definitely be a disaster.”
“We should respect and treat each other equally, and respect the other's sovereignty and territorial integrity and respect each other's choice on the path of development.” Playing the down the increasingly difficult relationship, he said “it is natural that China and the US may have different views and even frictions on certain iss-ues” given their different histories and cultures.
“This is what makes communication and co-operation even more necessary,” he said, at the guest house where then US President Richard Nixon met Mao Zedong on his groundbreaking visit to China in 1972.
