Xi says U.S. and China can only be adversaries or partners

BEIJING — The U.S. and China have to decide on between being adversaries or companions, Chinese language President Xi Jinping instructed American enterprise executives late Wednesday.

His remarks distinction with the Biden administration’s strategy of pursuing strategic competitors with Beijing — limiting exports of superior U.S. tech to China, whereas searching for areas of cooperation.

Xi was talking at a dinner in San Francisco following his assembly with U.S. President Joe Biden a couple of hours earlier, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation convention.

“I’ve all the time had one query on my thoughts: Easy methods to steer the enormous ship of China-U.S. relations away from hidden rocks and shoals, navigate it by way of storms and waves with out getting disoriented, dropping velocity and even having a collision?” Xi mentioned, based on an English-language readout of his Mandarin-language speech.

“On this respect, the primary query for us is: are we adversaries, or companions? That is the elemental and overarching situation,” he mentioned.

“The logic is sort of easy. If one sees the opposite aspect as a major competitor, essentially the most consequential geopolitical problem and a pacing menace, it’ll solely result in misinformed coverage making, misguided actions, and undesirable outcomes,” Xi mentioned.

“China is able to be a companion and good friend of the USA,” he mentioned. “The basic rules that we observe in dealing with China-U.S. relations are mutual respect, peaceable coexistence and win-win cooperation.”

Almost 400 enterprise leaders — together with Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon — authorities officers, U.S. residents and teachers attended the dinner, hosted by the U.S.-China Enterprise Council and the Nationwide Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

U.S Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo delivered remarks forward of Xi’s handle.

In a roughly 30-minute speech, Xi mentioned China-led worldwide initiatives such because the Belt and Street are open to U.S. participation, whereas Beijing is able to be a part of U.S.-proposed multilateral cooperation initiatives.

“Irrespective of how the worldwide panorama evolves, the historic development of peaceable coexistence between China and the USA is not going to change,” Xi mentioned.

Relating to earlier conversations with Biden, Xi mentioned “we agreed to make the cooperation listing longer and the pie of cooperation larger.”

Xi mentioned China is able to invite 50,000 younger Individuals to review within the Asian nation over the following 5 years.

He additionally mentioned China would ship its large pandas to the San Diego Zoo. He didn’t specify a time.

Final week, the remaining three pandas within the U.S. on mortgage from Beijing returned to China attributable to an expiring contract. China has lent pandas to nations world wide as a diplomatic device.

Xi’s speech was titled “Galvanizing Our Peoples right into a Robust Power For the Reason behind China-U.S. Friendship.”

“It’s unsuitable to view China, which is dedicated to peaceable growth, as a menace and thus play a zero-sum recreation in opposition to it,” Xi mentioned. “China by no means bets in opposition to the USA, and by no means interferes in its inside affairs.”

“China has no intention to problem the USA or to unseat it. As an alternative, we will likely be glad to see a assured, open, ever-growing and affluent United States,” he mentioned. “Likewise, the USA shouldn’t wager in opposition to China, or intervene in China’s inside affairs. It ought to as a substitute welcome a peaceable, secure and affluent China.”

— CNBC’s Christina Wilkie and Eamon Javers contributed to this report.