On the morning of August 19, 2011, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and US Vice President Joe Biden jointly attended China-US Business dialogue. Co-hosted by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), US-China Business Council and AmCham-China, the dialogue was attended by 19 Chinese and US business leaders.

Xi and Biden addressed the event respectively. Xi spoke highly of the contributions made by the Chinese and US entrepreneurs to the economic development of China and the US and the business cooperation between the two countries. He said that President Hu Jintao paid a successful state visit to the US in January this year and together with President Obama opened a new stage of building a win-win cooperative partnership of mutual respect and mutual benefit between China and the US.

Xi made four points of suggestions on how the Chinese and US businesses seize the opportunities and pursue common development as the China-US relations continue to deepen and in particular the world economic situation remains complex and severe. First, we should reinforce confidence. The drastic fluctuations in the international financial market and the rising uncertainty and instability of the world economic recovery all pose new challenges to the economic growth and business operation. Under such circumstances, what is most important is to boost morale and reinforce confidence. China will continue to pursue a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, maintain the consistency and stability of macroeconomic policy, make the policy more relevant, flexible and forward-looking and strike a proper balance among the stable and relatively fast growth of the national economy, readjustment of the economic structure and management of the inflation expectation. We are confident in and capable of maintaining the stable and relatively fast growth of the Chinese economy which will never experience a so-called hard-landing. The US economy is always highly resilient and has a strong self-repair capacity. We believe the US economy will achieve better development in the process of coping with challenges. Chinese and US business leaders should reinforce confidence, try to turn challenges into opportunities, make active contributions to the strong, sustainable and balanced growth of the Chinese and US economies and the world economy through their development. Second, we should take a long-term perspective. It has been made clear in China's 12th five-year plan to accelerate the change of growth model and stimulate the domestic demand. It is estimated that China will import over US$8 trillion of commodities within the next 5 years and its social retail goods is expected to reach RMB31 trillion by 2015. That will create greater opportunities for the US businesses and those of other countries. Meanwhile, an increasing number of competitive and far-sighted Chinese businesses are actively exploring the US market. Business communities of the two countries are expected to take full advantage of the enormous opportunities of cooperation in energy, environment, infrastructure, biomedicine, financial services and between small and medium-sized enterprises, work sincerely with each other, make the most of the current favorable conditions, invest in the future and write a new chapter of the bilateral business cooperation. Third, we should deepen cooperation. As China's reform, opening up and modernization drive go deeper, the traditional cooperation model which emerged 30 years ago under which the US provides capital and technologies and China offers labor, resources and market has changed fundamentally. The bilateral business cooperation is expanding in a wider range of areas and rising to higher levels. It is natural that the Chinese and the US businesses compete with each other in the process of cooperation and development. Such competition is healthy and based on mutual reinforcement and mutual learning and at the bottom conducive to the common development of both sides. We expect to see the mutual benefits brought by such sound competition. Fourth, we should be mutually inclusive. It is only natural that China and the US have some differences and frictions in the course of economic and trade cooperation given the big size and rapid growth of such cooperation. We should embrace the differences and frictions with an inclusive mind and generous attitude and properly handle them through equal consultations based on mutual respect according to the law of the market and the WTO rules. China will continue to emancipate its mind, pursue reform and opening up, stick to the strategy of running the state according to the law, improve its laws and regulations related to foreign business cooperation, effectively strengthen the IPR protection, treat all businesses as equals in terms of recognition of indigenous innovation products and government procurement and build, as always, an enabling investment environment for all the partners. China hopes the US eliminate the interferences of trade and investment protectionism and take tangible actions to address China's major concerns of relaxing the export restrictions on high-tech products to China and providing a level playfield for Chinese businesses to invest in the US. We believe the bilateral business cooperation will grow better and bigger so long as China and the US treat each other as equals and embrace mutual understanding and mutual accommodation.

He lastly wished further accomplishments for the business leaders of the two countries and greater success of the bilateral pragmatic cooperation.

Biden also delivered addressed the dialogue. He expressed agreement with Xi's four points of suggestions and noted that China has changed a lot over the past 30 years and both countries have benefited from the bilateral business cooperation which is a key area of the bilateral cooperation. China's 12th five-year plan is in the interest of both China and the US and the bilateral business cooperation serves the interest of the world. The US is committed to promoting the sustainable, balanced, fair and open economic growth. He has absolute confidence in the strength and the vitality of the US economy. His country is willing to step up cooperation with China on market access and mutual investment and welcomes and encourages the direct investment in the US from Chinese businesses and entities. Problems of bilateral business cooperation should be solved through sincere dialogue on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

Part of the Chinese and US business leaders also made remarks. They put forward proposals on further strengthening the bilateral business cooperation and stressed that businesses of the two countries have the responsibility for promoting the bilateral business cooperation and world economic growth under new circumstances. They are full of confidence in the prospects of the bilateral business cooperation.

The dialogue was chaired by the CCPIT President Wan Jifei. Present at the dialogue were business leaders from COSCO, China Unicom, COFCO, Suntech Power, XEMC, Bank of China, Haier, Lenovo, WanXiang Group, Coca-Cola Company, Caterpillar, GE, Chindex/United Family Hospitals, Corning, Dupont, General Motors JP Morgan Chase, Acorn International and AmCham-China.

On the evening of August 18, Xi hosted a welcome banquet for Biden in the Great Hall of the People.