Special Report: U.S. presidential election 2008
BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday expressed its willingness to work with U.S. president-elect Barack Obama and his team for healthy and stable Sino-U.S. relations.
"The Chinese government holds a positive and open attitude toward contacts with Obama and his team, since it is conducive to a stable transition and the healthy and stable development of Sino-U.S relations," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a press conference.
China places great importance on developing constructive cooperation with the United States and is willing to work with the U.S. administration, he said. "We hope China and the United States will have more opportunities, less trouble, fewer challenges and more cooperation."
The country was willing to work with the U.S. administration in accordance with the three communiques issued by the two sides, to solve sensitive issues in bilateral ties, he said.
The three communiques, signed in 1972, 1978 and 1982, laid the basic principles for the two countries' bilateral ties. In them, the U.S. government promised to support the one-China principle and not to support "Taiwan independence".
Stable and improved relations would benefit both peoples and world peace and stability. "No matter when, we are willing to improve communication, contacts, exchanges and cooperation with the U.S.," he said.
In response to Sino-U.S. trade imbalances and the country's currency policy, Qin expected the two sides to deal with this issue through "equal and friendly" dialogue.
Bilateral trade and economic cooperation benefit both sides and also improved the welfare of Americans, he said.
"There are trade imbalances between us. China's exports to the United States did increase," he said. "But you can't blame it all on our currency policy. It mainly resulted from the changes in the global industry.
"We produce and export some things that the United States did not produce anymore. It will import from other countries if not from China," he said.
China has made efforts to adjust its currency policy and expand imports from the United States, he said.
China also hopes to consume more U.S. products.
"We hope the U.S. administration will further lift restrictions on high-tech exports and acknowledge China's market economy status as early as possible so that bilateral trade will move forward in a balanced way," he said.
Qin voiced expectations for the Sino-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue, scheduled to kick off next month.
"It is a very important mechanism of dialogue that aims to deal with strategic, long-term and comprehensive economic and trade issues," he said. "Full exchanges were realized during previous dialogues. We expect to host the meeting well, jointly with the U.S. side."
When talking about China's cooperation with the new U.S. administration on international issues, Qin said the two countriescan continue working together to deal with global financial turmoil, food and energy security, climate change and the fight against terrorism.
"We have made progress on these issues through dialogue and we hope such cooperation will continue," he said.
Asked about the six-party talks, in which both China and the United States took part, Qin said China hopes the talks will move forward and positive results will be achieved through efforts from all parties.
A smooth development of the six-party talks, aiming to find a peaceful resolution on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, is in line with the long-term interests of all parties, including the United States, he said.
"China believed common understanding was reached no matter what party was going to rule the United States."
