[Title] Remarks at U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue Strategic Track Plenary Session One （By Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo）

COUNCILOR DAI: (Via Interpreter.) I’m very happy to see so many friends to join us here. The fact of so many people at present shows the importance of this relationship. Just now, we heard from Madam Secretary that our cooperation is really all-encompassing. It is found in each and every area. And our cooperative partnership is growing very robustly and vigorously. And first of all, if I may, I would like to begin to say some of my observations of how to understand and approach China-U.S. cooperative partnership.

President Hu paid a successful state visit in January to the U.S. this year, ushering in a new stage of building a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit. And people may have different views as to how to understand and approach this relationship. I think at least we can say the following.

First, China and the United States have entered a new stage of being partners of each other. At the beginning of the century, the relationship between our two countries vacillated between that of two rivals or two friends, leading to ups and downs in the relationship. After adjustment and adaptation, our top leaders have decided that we are going to build a cooperative partnership and wrote this down in a political document governing bilateral ties and set it as our national policy. This answers the question how we should view and deal with each other. And it is, I believe, is of great historic significance for the growth of bilateral ties.

Second, we have entered a new era of comprehensive and cooperative relations. After 40 years of development, our cooperation has reached unprecedented breadth and depth. The level of our interest intersection is such that we are inseparable from one another. And I believe such interdependence will only grow. As the international situation undergoes profound and complex changes, we will share broader common interests and shoulder more important common responsibilities. The handling of various complex and thorny issues in the world today needs our cooperation and coordination more than ever. The building of our cooperative partnership reflects the reality and the trend of our comprehensive cooperation and acknowledges our relationship as one of growing strategic relationship at the bilateral, regional, and the global levels.

Third, we are experiencing a new pattern of harmonious coexistence and the mutually beneficial cooperation between major countries. In the history of international relations, the relationship between an emerging country and an established power is often fraught with zero-sum game, malicious competition, or violent conflicts, bringing numerous disasters to mankind. The fact that we are working together on a cooperative partnership is initial proof that our two countries have the wisdom and ability to break the previous pattern and blaze a new path of major power relations featuring openness, inclusiveness, benign interactions, and mutually beneficial cooperation. Whether we can succeed in developing and advancing this pattern bears on the welfare of our people and mankind as a whole.

Okay, so much from me. Thank you.