On Feb 28, Chinese Consul General Xu Erwen visited the state of Oklahoma and delivered a keynote speech on China's energy policy and China-U.S. relations in the University of Central Oklahoma.

In her speech, Consul General Xu introduced China's 12th Five Year Plan of national economic and social development. She pointed out that, Energy conservation is the inevitable choice to solve the conflicts between energy supply and demand. China will continue to promote energy efficiency and diversify its energy supply by developing more renewable and clean energy. China will make efforts to create a more favorable environment for cleaner and greener industries and for new energy development.

Consul General Xu pointed out that, as the two biggest energy producing and consuming countries in the world, China and U.S. share many common interests and challenges in energy sector. To expand the cooperation between China and the U.S. in all areas including energy is not only conducive to the national interests of the two countries but also beneficial to the sustainable growth of the world economy.

Consul General Xu reviewed the development of China-U.S. relationship in the past 40 years starting from President Nixon's first visit to China and the release of the Shanghai Communiqué. She stressed that China-US relationship has become one of the most important, the most dynamic and the most promising bilateral relationships in today's world. China and the US have kept frequent bilateral high-level communications and established effective consultation mechanism. Growing people-to-people exchanges have strengthened the bonds between the two nations and the mutually beneficial economy and trade cooperation is growing and expanding steadily. China and the US have made great contributions to world peace, stability and prosperity by maintaining effective communication and cooperation on important regional and global issues.

In the second decade of this century, China-US relations are at a new historical starting point. The two sides should continue to improve mutual understanding and strategic trust, respect each other's core interests and major concerns and make efforts to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation. The two sides should continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation in international affairs and global issues and work closely together to build a China-US cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit, and strive to shape the two countries' partnership into a new model for the 21st century.

The featured speech was delivered at a luncheon as part of the International Conference on Energy Security and China-U.S. Relations hosted by the UCO. The event was attended by about 200 participants including local government officials, leading faculty members of the UCO and other universities, representatives from the business community of Oklahoma as well as local Chinese community.

At the sidelines of the speech luncheon, Consul General Xu met with President Betz of UCO. They exchanged views on educational cooperation between UCO and its Chinese counterparts.