20 April 2006

Dear President and Mrs. Bush,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends,

First of all, I wish to express, on behalf of my wife and my colleagues and in my own name, our sincere thanks to you, President Bush and Mrs. Bush, for your gracious hospitality.

I also wish to thank you for giving me this important opportunity to renew friendship with old friends and make new ones at this grand welcoming luncheon.

Over the years, all of you present here have worked to promote friendship between our two peoples and China-US relations. On behalf of the Chinese Government and people, I wish to extend our warm greetings and best wishes to you, and through you, to all the Americans who care about and support the growth of China-US relations.

On this visit, I have keenly felt the warm friendship of the American people towards the Chinese people. In the past, the Chinese and the Americans sympathized with, helped and supported each other. We will never forget the invaluable support given to us by the American Government and people in our struggle against Fascist aggression. We will always cherish our profound friendship with the American people forged over the long years.

In the past 27 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, China-US relations have, as a whole, moved ahead despite difficulties and problems. Recent years, in particular, have seen major progress made by the two sides in building constructive and cooperative China-US relations. We have carried out fruitful cooperation in wide ranging areas, including trade, counter-terrorism and non-proliferation and on major regional and international issues. This has expanded the common strategic interests of our two countries, and promoted world peace and development. As history has shown, to ensure the continued growth of China-US relations represents the shared desire of the two peoples and meets the fundamental interests of our two countries and peoples.

As we look across the world, we find ourselves in an era of both opportunities and challenges. China and the United States, respectively being the largest developing country and the largest developed country, share growing common interests, expanding areas for cooperation and increasing historical responsibilities. China-US relations have gone far beyond the bilateral context and become increasingly global in nature. China and the United States are not only stakeholders, but they should also be constructive partners.

President Bush and I have just concluded in-depth exchange of views and reached broad and important agreement on China-US relations and regional and international issues of mutual interest. We both agreed to maintain regular high-level exchanges and increase interactions at various levels. We agreed to deepen economic and trade cooperation, enhance dialogue on macro-economic policies, and strengthen communication and coordination on major regional and international issues. We also agreed to promote people-to-people exchanges, especially those among young people, and promote exchange and cooperation in cultural, educational and other fields. In short, we are committed to increasing mutual trust, deepening cooperation and advancing in an all round way the constructive and cooperative China-US relations in the 21st century.

As you all know, China has, since the late 1970's, gone through major transformation in the process of reform and opening-up. In the years to come, China will continue to make economic development a top priority, press ahead with the reform and opening-up program, promote its modernization drive and endeavor to make life better for its 1.3 billion people. China will keep firm to the path of peaceful development and work unswervingly to safeguard world peace and promote common development. What has happened has proven, and it will continue to prove that China's development has brought about prosperity and stability to the Chinese people and peace and progress to people elsewhere in the world. China will, as always, live in peace with other countries and work with them to promote mutually beneficial cooperation and common development. China will contribute more to the lofty cause of peace and development of mankind.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends,

China-US relations now stand at a new historical juncture. Let me quote here the lines of "Looking at Mount Tai", a poem written by Du Fu, a great Chinese poet in the Tang Dynasty:

"Climb up to the summit and see

The mountains around and below are wee!"

We should view and handle our relations from a strategic plane and a long-term perspective, keep to the common strategic interests of the two countries, enhance dialogue, mutual trust and cooperation, accommodate each other's interest and properly address differences. By doing so, I am confident we can ensure the sound and steady growth of China-US relations and bring more benefit to both our two peoples and the peoples of other countries.

Now, please join me in a toast,

to the health of President and Mrs. Bush,

to the health of all the friends present here today,

to the friendship between the Chinese and the American peoples, and

to the bright future of China-US relations.

Cheers!