China and the US should respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation, President Xi Jinping told US counterpart Joe Biden on Tuesday, adding that the two countries need to cooperate to respond to global challenges like climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Xi expressed his readiness to work with President Biden to build consensus and take active steps to move China-US relations forward in a positive direction,” a statement issued by the Xinhua news agency, quoted the Chinese leader as saying in his opening remarks at a virtual meeting with Biden on Tuesday.
Advancing global peace and development is the “joint mission of Chinese and American leaders,” Xi said.
Xi and Biden are currently meeting virtually via video-link, their first such interaction since the US president took office in January this year.
Xi pointed out that both China and the US are at critical stages of development, and the “global village” of humanity faces multiple challenges.
The Chinese President spoke about the need to “increase” communication between the two countries.
As the world’s two largest economies and permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the US need to increase communication and cooperation, each run their domestic affairs well and, at the same time, shoulder their share of international responsibilities, and work together to advance the noble cause of world peace and development,” Xi told Biden.
“This is the shared desire of the people of the two countries and around the world, and the joint mission of Chinese and American leaders,” Xi said.
According to the Xinhua statement, Xi expressed his readiness to work with Biden to build consensus and take active steps to move China-US relations forward in a positive direction.
“Doing so will advance the interests of the two peoples and meet the expectation of the international community,” Xi said.
On the issue of human rights, Xi said China is willing to conduct dialogue on human rights issues on the basis of mutual respect but is not in favour of using human rights to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.
Xi said the people can judge if a nation is democratic or not, and it is undemocratic in itself to exclude others only because of their different forms of achieving democracy, according to Chinese state media.
Xi is accompanied by some of China’s top politicians and diplomats, according to Chinese state media.
Ding Xuexiang, a member of the political bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He, Yang Jiechi, a member of the political bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese state councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi as well as vice foreign minister Xie Feng are among the attendees to the meeting, according to photo of the video meeting released by Xinhua.
Chinese state-controlled media said on Monday that Beijing will ask Washington to “step back” on its policies and statements on the self-ruled and democratic island, which China claims as a breakaway region.
The situation in Afghanistan, bilateral trade, nuclear proliferation and cybersecurity are likely to be discussed during the talks.