Stay on the Right Track and Keep Pace with the Times to Ensure the Right Direction for China-US Relations |
2020-07-09 16:28 |
Beijing, 9 July 2020 Distinguished Guests, Greetings to you all. At the outset, I would like to congratulate you on the opening of the Forum. I also wish to use this opportunity to thank and pay tribute to the people from all sectors who have long been committed to China-US relations. I want to thank Dr. Kissinger for supporting this Forum. Every time I talked with him, I was most impressed by his profound, strategic thinking on the world and on China-US relations. Today's Forum is highly important. As we speak, COVID-19 is raging across the globe. People's lives are under grave threat. The world economy is in deep recession. The undercurrent against international cooperation is gathering momentum. Unilateralism and bullying are forcing their way in the world. An international disorder is more possible than ever. More alarmingly, China-US relations, one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world, is faced with the most severe challenge since the establishment of diplomatic ties. Some in the US with ideological biases are resorting to all possible means to portray China as an adversary, and even an enemy. They seek relentlessly to frustrate and contain China's development, and to impede interactions between China and the US. Will the giant ship of China-US relations be able to stay on the right course in the future after more than four decades of voyage? The question matters not only to the interests of the Chinese and American peoples, but also to the future of the world and humanity. How to set things right and get China-US relations back on track toward long-term, sound and steady development? I would like to offer three observations. First, China and the US should not seek to remodel each other. Instead, they must work together to find ways to peaceful coexistence of different systems and civilizations. Every country takes its development path on the basis of its cultural and historic traditions. China's path of socialism with Chinese characteristics suits its own national conditions, and it is the choice of the Chinese people. Facts have proved that this has been the way out of poverty and backwardness for the 1.4 billion Chinese people, and that it has enabled the Chinese nation to make important contribution again to the progress of mankind. International public opinion surveys have indicated over and again that Chinese people's approval ratings of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the government rank the highest worldwide. No one has the right to rebuff the development path of other countries. And no country will remold its own system to the liking of other countries. After all, it should be the people of the country concerned to adjudicate whether their country's choice of system and path is right or not. |