Mary Peters, Secretary of Transportation of the United States, delivers a speech in Beijing, April 13, 2007. The United States hopes to deepen cooperation with China, one of the world's fastest growing economies, in the transportation industry, especially in the aviation sector. [chinadaily.com.cn]

"The principal reason for my visit this week is to talk with Chinese officials about ways to expand the number of flights between our two countries even further," said Mary Peters, Secretary of Transportation of the United States.

The US and China have joined hands in the field of aviation for a long time and in 2004 the two sides signed a landmark agreement to allow more airlines to operate more flights between the two countries.

Yet, China-US transportation links including aviation have to be deepened to satisfy the huge demands for the transportation of people and cargo arising from rapidly increasing economic activities between the two nations. "Much more can and should be done to strengthen our aviation partnership even further," said Peters.

There are a mere 11 daily nonstop passenger flights between China and the US, a figure much smaller than the 55 flights between the US and Germany, according to the US Department of Transportation.

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