Shared interests outweigh feuds and differences

US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping rest during a tour at the Annenberg Retreat, California, June 8, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

US National Security Advisor Susan Rice is in town on Friday to discuss the preparation work for Chinese President Xi Jinping's trip to the United States next month. Both Beijing and Washington have attached great importance to Xi's upcoming visit, which is sure to lay an indelible mark on Sino-US relations.

Xi's visit is expected to give further guidance to the building of a new model of major-country relations between the two nations and bring greater benefits to the two peoples.

The top Chinese leader's visit also presents a good opportunity for the two countries to deepen their practical cooperation and build consensuses on thorny bilateral and multilateral issues, especially about how they are going to interact in the Asia-Pacific region.

In recent months, some differences, old and new, have cropped up to cloud bilateral ties. Washington has ratcheted up its tone on pressing China over cybersecurity and rallied more closely behind countries such as the Philippines to stir up the troubled waters of the South China Sea.

As the most important nation-to-nation relationship, ties between China and the US are always under worldwide scrutiny. Beijing and Washington are not only expected to straighten out issues among themselves, they are also expected to jointly contribute to international efforts to address issues of global concern, such as climate change.

Recently, currency fluctuations and turbulence in the global stock markets have fueled fears of fresh financial turmoil. It is to be hoped that the summit between Xi and his US counterpart Barack Obama can send positive signals that will shore up confidence and prevent a crisis.

The feuds and differences between Beijing and Washington have, by and large, stemmed from how the US increasingly sees China as a rival that will sooner or later challenge its global supremacy.

In fact, China has no intention of challenging the US' supremacy, it always looks to work with the US as cooperative partners. The fact that cooperation has outweighed confrontation during the vicissitudes in China-US ties indicates their shared interests prevail over their differences.

Hence, the two should stick to their shared goals and interests, accommodate each other's legitimate concerns and prevent their differences from dominating the agenda of bilateral interaction. Only by so doing can Beijing and Washington learn to deal with each other better and jointly contribute to world peace and development.