China-U.S. ties at new historical starting point

In the short span of 30 years, with the joint efforts of several generations of Chinese leaders, seven U.S. presidents and people in both countries, the ship of China-U.S. relations has forged ahead, come rain or shine. It has brought tremendous benefits to our two peoples and contributed greatly to world peace and development.

Both the 1.3 billion Chinese and the 300 million Americans feel happy to see that our exchanges at the top and other levels are becoming more and more frequent. Years ago, our top leaders could hardly meet once in several years. Yet during President Gorge W. Bush's presidency, our top leaders have met several times a year.

There are now more than 60 dialogue and cooperation mechanisms between our two countries, in particular the Strategic Economic Dialogue and the Strategic Dialogue. These two mechanisms have provided an important platform for expanding and deepening dialogue and cooperation between us at the strategic level.

Our two countries have common views on more and more strategic issues. Exchanges and mutual understanding between our two countries in the past 30 years have reached breadth and depth never seen before. Our understanding of the changing world, of each other and of our relationship has deepened substantially.