On February 26, 2008, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Ziguangge, Zhongnanhai.

Wen hailed the generally good development of the relations, citing the active implementation of the consensus reached by the leaders of both countries on comprehensively promoting the China-U.S. constructive and cooperative ties this century, and the new progress of bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields. "China is the largest developing country in the world, while the U.S. is the largest developed country. The good relationship is both beneficial to the two countries and the two peoples, and conducive to safeguarding world peace, stability and prosperity," Wen said. "As there are now a lot of uncertain factors in the international political and economic situation, it is especially important to guarantee the healthy and steady development of China-U.S. relations," said Wen. Wen said China and the United States should handle the bilateral relationship with a strategic and long-term perspective, and jointly safeguard the "hard-earned" relationship through enhancing mutual trust and expanding cooperation.

Hailing that the United States and China have built a fruitful relationship with a stable foundation, Rice said the cooperation can help better resolve the complicated and difficult issues in the international system. The two sides have made continuous progress in strategic economic dialogue, the strategic dialogue and cooperation in various fields, which helped both sides handle specific issues from a perspective concerning the overall situation, Rice said. She said the United States was ready to continue to consolidate the basis of the two countries' relations and promote the development of bilateral ties.

Wen said that China-U.S. economic and trade relations were mutually beneficial and it was inevitable for problems to occur during rapid development. China held that disputes should be properly handled through dialogue and consultation and opposed trade protectionism in any form, noted Wen. He said that China had adopted and would continue positive measures to address concerns of the U.S. side, and it hoped that the U.S. side would further open its markets and lift limits on high-tech exports to China.

The sound development of the U.S. economy and a steady U.S. dollar benefits the United States and the world, said Wen. He said that China was ready to make concerted efforts with the United States to promote world economic growth and maintain the stability of the world financial markets.

Rice said that the U.S. economy was generally good and would soon show steady growth under the stimulus policy. There was a tendency toward economic nationalism and trade protectionism in the United States, said Rice, adding that U.S. President George W. Bush firmly upheld free and just trade and was committed to promoting U.S.-China economic relations. She said she hoped that China-U.S. strategic economic dialogue could make progress in solving some problems.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and other officials attended the meeting.