BEIJING, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Experts at a key international security forum have called for farsightedness and wisdom in developing the bilateral relations between China and the United States.
David Firestein, inaugural executive director of the China Public Policy Center of the University of Texas at Austin, stressed that China is enormously important to the United States for many different reasons and vice versa.
Ultimately, the two countries cannot long sustain a situation in which they are adversaries, said Firestein, who is here to attend the second Wanshou Dialogue on Global Security.
As to the voices in the United States seeking to demonize China, Firestein said they came from people who have fairly little familiarity with the country and they do not necessarily represent the grassroots or average citizen, as most Americans have a more moderate view on China.
Highlighting the massive level of bilateral trade between the United States and China, he said he continues to hold the view that China's development is actually a good thing for the United States in a very broad sense that the more prosperous China is, the more capable it would be of purchasing American goods and services.
On the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his U.S. counterpart, President Donald Trump. They agreed to continue to advance a China-U.S. relationship featuring coordination, cooperation and stability and announced the restart of economic and trade consultations between their countries on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
Firestein said if the two countries do not get a handle on the trade war and the broader frictions in the relationship, neither will benefit.
The meeting is good for both of the countries and good for the world, and what we need now is cool-headedness and stable handling of this important relationship in a sense of vision and farsightedness, said Firestein, who is also president and CEO of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations.
Douglas Bandow, a special assistant to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, also spoke highly of the meeting between the heads of state and stressed that the resumption of negotiations on trade issues is important to all.
He said he personally hoped that the United States and China could maintain a friendship and cooperate into the future. "The world will be a much better place if we are able to continue to cooperate," said Bandow.
