On August 1, 2007, Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei met with the delegation of youth politicians from Aspen Institute, which consists of more than 20 representatives from the U.S. state governments and parliaments.

He introduced China's diplomatic policies, recent developments of China-U.S. relations and China's positions on major international and regional issues. In response to the U.S.'s concern about the Darfur issue in Sudan, He stressed that the Chinese government has made unremitting efforts toward the proper settlement of the issue and played a constructive role to this end. China has offered multiple humanitarian assistance and donations to Darfur and the AU mission in Darfur and decided to dispatch a multi-function engineering unit to participate in peacekeeping operations in Darfur. Positive developments have been achieved with the current situation. The United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted Resolution 1769 to deploy the hybrid peacekeeping operation to be jointly conducted by UN and AU. This is a result of concerted efforts of all sides including the United States. The situation in Darfur is turning for the better. More attention should be given to the humanitarian situation in Iraq. We would like to work together with all sides to promote the peacekeeping operations and political process in Darfur in a balanced manner and achieve peace and stability in the region at an early date. Some people in the United States linked the Darfur issue with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and blamed China for no reason at all. Such blame is utterly groundless and unfair. The Chinese side strongly opposes it.

The U.S. delegates said that the visit offered them an opportunity to have some live experience of the long history and culture of China as well as the rapid development of China, from which they benefited a lot. The introduction of the Chinese side deepened their knowledge of China's diplomatic policies and China-US relation and enhanced their understanding of the constructive roles played by China in international affairs including the Darfur issue.