China hopes new US government will treat bilateral ties objectively, rationally: spokesperson

BEIJING -- China hopes that the new US administration can treat China and the Sino-US relations objectively and rationally, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a regular press briefing in response to a question on White House spokesperson's remarks on US relations with China.

As two major countries, China and the United States share extensive common interests in maintaining world peace and stability and promoting global development and prosperity, and shoulder special and important responsibilities, Zhao said.

"China and the United States will gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. Cooperation is the only right choice for both sides," the spokesperson said.

He said that in the past few years the Trump administration has made directional mistakes, treating China as a strategic competitor, or even a threat. It has taken a series of wrong actions that interfered in China's internal affairs and harmed China's interests, leading to an unusually critical situation in Sino-US ties unseen since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Zhao said.

"This is not in the fundamental interests of the two peoples," he said.

China hopes that the new US government will learn from the Trump administration's wrong policies toward China, treat China and the Sino-US relations in an objective and rational manner, adopt a positive and constructive policy toward China, meet China halfway, focus on cooperation, manage differences, and push China-US relations back on the right track of healthy and stable development, Zhao said.