Xi Jinping says China and US should be partners, not rivals in Trump talks

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday that China and the US should be partners and not rivals, as he arrived in Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump. In a written statement carried by state-run Xinhua news agency, Xi said he was confident the two countries could find the right way to get along in the new era.

Xi said China and the US were both great countries and their peoples were both great peoples. He also said he looked forward to in-depth exchanges with Trump on major issues concerning bilateral ties and the global situation.

In a rare gesture, Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, received Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, when they landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday. Xi said he and Trump had agreed to build a China-US relationship of strategic stability during Trump's visit to China in May, and that this had provided guidance for the future development of bilateral ties.

Xi said China and the US should work in the same direction and promote a stable relationship marked by cooperation as the mainstay, moderate competition, manageable differences and the promise of peace. He said the people of the two countries had maintained friendly exchanges for a long time and that their interests were deeply intertwined. Xi also said that 'the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation' and 'making America great again' could go hand in hand, complement each other and benefit the world. He added that the historical logic of peaceful coexistence between China and the US had not changed.

Overall, Xi used his arrival in Washington to underline that Beijing wanted a stable relationship with the US, with cooperation at its core, while also signalling that he wanted detailed talks with Trump on bilateral and global issues.