Ready to work with US for mutual benefit: China’s Xi

BEIJING/WASHINGTON: President Xi Jinping has said China is willing to work with the US to find the “right way to get along with each other in the new era”, Chinese state media reported on Thursday, ahead of a possible meeting between Xi and US President Joe Biden at an international summit in November.

“China stands ready to work with the US to find the right way to get along with each other in the new era on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, which will benefit not only the two countries but also the whole world,” Xi was quoted as saying by Chinese state media in a message to an National Committee on US-China Relations (NCUSCR) event on Wednesday.

Beijing and Washington have been sparring over multiple issues, including Taiwan and

China’s support for Russia over its Ukraine invasion, and US efforts to prevent its semiconductor companies selling technology to Chinese companies.

“Noting that the world today is neither tranquil nor peaceful, Xi said closer communication and cooperation between China and the US, both as major countries, will help bring greater stability and certainty to the world and promote world peace and development,” reported CGTN channel. The message was Xi’s first overture to the US and Biden after securing a unprecedented third term as leader of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) earlier this week.

US military says China is still main challenge

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlights the “acute threats” posed by Moscow, but China is the most consequential challenge for the United States, the US military said in a statement of its overall strategy released on

AThursday. The Pentagon also made clear -- amid Russian talk of use of a nuclear weapon in the Ukraine war -- that the United States intends for its nuclear arsenal to deter “all forms of strategic attack,” including those involving conventional weapons.

China “presents the most consequential and systemic challenge, while Russia poses acute threats - both to vital US national interests abroad and to the homeland,” the unclassified version of the National Defence Strategy said.

“The most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security is (China’s) coercive and increasingly aggressive endeavor to refashion the Indo-Pacific region and the international system to suit its interests and authoritarian preferences,” it said.

As for Russia, it says the threat posed by Moscow has been “demonstrated most recently by Russia’s unprovoked further invasion of Ukraine.