Cui speaks of benefits of Trump’s visit

China’s top diplomat in the US said his country wants to build a strong partnership with the United States based on mutual respect and benefi t.“This partnership will make each of us better able to accom-plish our domestic goals. This partnership will bring both countries together in a stron-ger position to respond to so many challenges in today’s world,” Ambassador Cui Tiankai said on Wednesday.Cui applauded the recent fi rst state visit to China by US President Donald Trump, say-ing President Xi Jinping and US President Trump held an in-depth exchange of views and reached important con-sensus on issues, which set the tone for the relationship. “The two presidents agreed to stay in close contact with each other and to provide strategic guidance for the relationship,” Cui told a crowd made up mostly of experts on US-China relations, at the annual gala dinner of the US-China Pol-icy Foun-dation (USCPF) in Washing-ton on Wednesday.He gave a long list of the achievements and consensus, including on the issues regard-ing the Korean Peninsula and tackling other bilateral, region-al and global issues.In talking about his Asia trip on Wednesday, Trump said he and his wife, fi rst lady Melania Trump, were “greatly honored by the splendor” of their recep-tion in China.“Our trip included the fi rst offi cial dinner held for a for-eign leader in the Forbidden City since the founding of mod-ern China, where we enjoyed a very productive evening hosted by President Xi and his wonderful wife Madam Peng,” Trump told the press in the White House less than a day after his return from a 12-day tour in Asia.Trump applauded China’s pledge to faithfully implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He also praised the $250 billion trade-investment deals with China that he said “will create jobs in the United States”.“I also had very candid con-versations with President Xi about the need to reduce our staggering trade defi cit with China, and for our trading rela-tionship to be conducted on a truly fair and equitable basis,” he said.“It was a very important and successful state visit to China,” said Laura Stone, acting depu-ty assistant secretary for China and Mongolia at the Bureau of East Asian and Pacifi c Aff airs of State Department.“The mood was really spectacular. And the president was incredibly impressed by the experience and by the courtesy showed to him,” Stone said.Cui was presented with an Outstanding Achievement Award in US-China Relations, while Max Baucus, US ambas-sador to China from 2014 to 2017 and former US senator from Montana, won the Out-standing Achievement Award in Public Service.Charlie Jiang, chairman and CEO of China-US SkyClub, and Stella Li, president of BYD Motors, received the US-China Business Leadership Award.“I can see the chemistry and trust between President Xi and President Trump, something very assuring to our business community,” Jiang said. “I believe the relations between China and the US will really enter a new era after the 19th Congress.”

Ambassador Cul Tiankal