China's Independent Foreign Policy of Peace | Relations With Major Powers  |  Relations With Neighboring Countries  |Relations With Developing Countries| China's Military Diplomacy in 2003

China sticks to expanding common interests and resolving disputes with big powers on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

Sino-U.S. Relations January 1, 2004 witnessed the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. Over the past 25 years, Sino-U.S. relations have achieved great improvement and development. The two countries maintained high-level contact and strategic dialogues and made important progress in building a constructive relationship.

On June 1, 2003, Chinese President Hu Jintao held a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush during the South-North leaders' informal dialogue meeting in Evian. President Hu said that China and the United States are both important big countries in the world and bear important responsibility to maintain world peace and stability and to promote the common development of the mankind. The two countries share wide common interests and have wide cooperation basis on issues such as counter-terrorism, crackdown on international crime, boosting global economy, preventing and treating diseases and environmental protection, the Chinese president said. He added China is willing to join hands with the United States to push forward the constructive relations between the two countries.

President Bush said that Sino-U.S. relations were at an active and stable period and were developing soundly. China is a great country and its prospect is bright, he said. He further expressed that the United States is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in anti-terrorist, economic, trade and other fields, and continue to be engaged in developing constructive and cooperative relations between the two countries.

President Hu reiterated China's stance and principle on the Taiwan issue, stressing that Taiwan issue has all along been and will continue to be the most important and sensitive question in Sino-U.S. relations. He pointed out that China sticks to the basic policy of peaceful reunification and "one country, two systems," and will try all out to reunify the Chinese mainland and Taiwan by peaceful means. The current problem is, he added, that the Taiwan authorities do not accept the one-China policy and separatist forces who seek to create "Taiwan independence" are making rampant activities to split Taiwan from China, which are the fundamental reason for the tension across the Taiwan Strait and the fact that the cross-strait relations have not been improved. Hu said that China hopes that the United States will adhere to its commitments, properly handle the Taiwan issue and not send wrong messages to separatist forces in Taiwan.

Bush said that the U.S. Government will continue to stick to the one-China policy, abide by the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques and oppose "Taiwan independence." That policy has not been changed and will not be changed in the future, he added.

In December, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the United States. He put forward four proposals on developing Sino-U.S. constructive and cooperative relations, which are to further strengthen high-level exchanges of visits and strategic dialogue between the two countries, to advance bilateral trade and economic cooperation for mutual benefit and establish a good mechanism to handle bilateral problems, to strengthen coordination between the two countries in dealing with important international and regional issues, and to actively expand people-to-people contact between the two countries.

When talking about the Sino-U.S. relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said that the general trend of the development of Sino-U.S. relations has been good in recent years. Leaders of the two countries have kept frequent contact and the mutual understanding and political trust is deepening and growing more mature, the foreign minister said. The one-China policy and the principles in the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques is the political basis for the steady development of Sino-U.S. ties, and with this political basis, cooperation between the two countries in other fields will proceed smoothly. For example, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, China has cooperated effectively with the United States in fighting terrorism. The United States has helped China arrest some separatists who have been involved in terrorist activities in Xinjiang. This is a kind of two-way and equal cooperation, which is demonstrated more obviously in the field of economy and trade. The United States is now China's second largest trading partner and also one of the major investment sources of China. U.S.-funded enterprises in China have exceeded 40,000, with paid-in capital of $43 billion. This is of big benefit to China in terms of increasing employment opportunities and tax revenue. At the same time, the United States benefits from the exports of these enterprises as well. So long as the two countries adhere to the principles in the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques, the prospect of Sino-U.S. ties brightens, according to the foreign minister.