Mutual respect is way forward for China-US relations

A spokesperson for the fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress has reiterated that mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation should be the right approach for China and the United States to get along with each other in the new era, saying that Washington regarding China as a strategic rival will eventually hurt its own interests.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, one day before the opening of the annual session of China's top legislature, Zhang Yesui, the spokesperson, said a stable China-US relationship is good for the respective development of both countries.

It is also conducive to maintaining a peaceful and stable international environment, as well as effectively responding to climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and other global challenges, he added.

In response to a question about the America COMPETES Act of 2022, which was passed by the US House of Representatives in February, Zhang said how the US chooses to raise its competitiveness, including in the development and manufacturing of chips, is its own business, but to use Chinese development as an excuse to regard China as a strategic rival will only erode mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries, and will eventually hurt the US' own interests.

Noting that win-win cooperation serves the fundamental interests of the two nations and two peoples and is also the shared aspiration of the international community, he stressed that the key to peaceful coexistence between the two countries is mutual respect.

That includes respecting each other's choice of political system and development path, respecting each other's core interests and major concerns, and respecting the basic norms of international relations, such as noninterference in internal affairs, he said.

"I want to underscore that to draw lines based on ideology, or form small circles and stoke confrontation between blocs are all acts against the trend of the times and they will lead nowhere," Zhang said.

At the news conference, the spokesperson also stressed that China's Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law is a defensive measure to counter others' containment and oppression, and it is essentially different from the unilateral sanctions pursued by some other countries.

Saying it is a common process in many countries to respond to foreign sanctions, interference and long-arm jurisdiction through legislation, Zhang stressed that China will resort to legal means, including the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, to resolutely safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests and to protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese citizens and institutions when it faces acts of bullying, including arbitrary sanctions.

While answering a question about China's relations with Lithuania, the spokesperson said Lithuania bears all of the responsibility for the current difficulties in the countries' relations due to its violation of the one-China principle by allowing the Taiwan authority to open a so-called "representative office" in the country.

Zhang rejected the accusation of so-called "economic coercion" by China against Lithuania, saying that the European Union's filing a case at the World Trade Organization over China is "not constructive".

China always maintains that WTO rules should be respected in international trade and it actively fosters a market environment for fair competition, Zhang said, adding that the country never discriminates against any country or enterprise.

"We hope the EU could act in an objective and impartial way to avoid escalating the issue between China and Lithuania into a problem for China-EU relations," he said.