TMTPost -- In his in-person meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing on Friday afternoon, Chinese President Xi Jinping highlights win-win cooperation and cautions risk of zero-sum game.

Credit：Xinhua News Agency

Xi appreciated certain positive progresses made in implementing the San Francisco Vision reached by he and U.S. President Joe Biden over the past few months, but noted there are still many problems that need to be addressed and there is room for further efforts. Xi underscored five pillars for China-U.S. relations he proposed in his meeting with President Biden in San Francisco last November, namely, jointly developing a right perception, jointly managing disagreements effectively, jointly advancing mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly shouldering responsibilities as major countries, and jointly promoting people-to-people exchanges. These pillars should serve as the underpinning for the mansion of China-U.S relations, and specific issues will become easier to address once the overarching principles are established, Xinhua News Agency cited Xi.

"China is willing to cooperate, but cooperation should be a two-way street. China is not afraid of competition, but competition should be about progressing together instead of playing a zero-sum game,"  Xi said. “China is committed to non-alliance, and the United States should not create small blocs.” While each side can have its friends and partners, it should not target, oppose or harm the other, he added. "China welcomes a confident, open, prosperous and thriving United States, and hopes the United States will also look at China's development in a positive light," Xi told Blinken.

Just as an old Chinese saying goes “Passengers in the same boat should help each other”, Xi believes dellers of the Earth should help each other since we live in an interdependent world with interests deeply intertwined. “ With their interests deeply intertwined, all countries need to build maximum consensus for win-win and all-win outcomes. This is the basic starting point for China to view the world and the China-U.S. relationship,” Xi said. Noting that the stabilizing trend in China-U.S. relations did not come by easily, Xi said it is hoped that teams from both countries will continue working actively to follow through on the San Francisco vision he and President Biden reached, so as to truly stabilize, improve and move forward the bilateral relations.

The United States does not seek a new Cold War, does not seek to change China's system, does not seek to suppress China's development, does not seek to revitalize its alliances against China, and has no intention to have a conflict with China, said Blinken. The Secretary said the United States hopes to maintain communication with the Chinese side, follow through on what the two presidents agreed in San Francisco, seek more cooperation, avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations, responsibly manage differences, and achieve stable development of U.S.-China relations.

Blinken and his Chinese counterparts had in-depth, substantive, and constructive discussions on key priorities in the bilateral relationship and on a range of regional and global issues, Matthew Miller, the spokesperson  of the U.S. Department of State, briefed the Secretary’s visit to China from April 24 to 26. Blinken pressed for continued progress in implementing the leaders’ Woodside Summit commitments on key issues, including advancing counternarcotics cooperation to disrupt the global flow of synthetic drugs – including fentanyl and their precursor chemicals – into the United States, enhancing military-to-military communication to avoid miscalculation and conflict, and launching talks on managing the risk and safety challenges posed by advanced forms of artificial intelligence (AI), Miller said.

Blinken, at a press he held following his meet with Xi, stressed U.S. and China agreed to hold the first U.S.-China talks on AI to be held in the coming weeks. “We’ll share our respective views on the risks and safety concerns around advanced AI and how best to manage them,” Blinken said. He added during the visit he also talked about ways that both countries can continue to grow people-to-people ties between each other, particularly educational exchanges. “Our governments have a vested interest in creating open and welcoming conditions for these programs which have long enriched both of our countries," Blinken said.

Blinken addressed China’s non-market economic policies and practices that distort trade or threaten our national security and raised concern about the global economic consequences of China’s industrial overcapacity, according to Miller. The Secretary advocated for fair treatment and a level playing field for U.S. workers and business, and reiterated that the United States will continue to take necessary actions to defend its interests and values, and those of our allies and partners, including preventing advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine our national security and economy without unduly limiting trade or investment, according to Miller.