Visits build mutual trust

The United States Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew paid a visit to Beijing on Friday and Saturday and US Vice-President Joe Biden is also expected to visit China next month.

Meanwhile, Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong is visiting the United States where she will co-chair with US Secretary of State John Kerry the fourth China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange.

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew speaks about the economy at an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, August 22, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Such frequent high-level exchanges after the Third Plenum of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee indicate both countries are keen to build a new type of major country relationship, said an opinion piece from Xinhua.

The Third Plemum is an epoch-making event as it marks a new historical era for deepening reforms in a comprehensive way and the realization of a series of major strategic objectives. Naturally the US is eager to learn more about the direction of China's future development.

The summit meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama held in June in California charted a new blueprint for the future of China-US relations. During the meeting, Xi called on the two sides to work together to build a new type of relations between major countries in an innovative and active way to serve the fundamental interests of the two peoples and to promote development and progress of human society.

There have been 15 times in recorded history when a new power has emerged, and 11 of them ended up in confrontation and war between the emerging power and the old power.

However, it is a different world today. China and the US must build a new type of major country relationship.

Intensive high-level visits and contacts enable the two countries to have in-depth discussions on issues of mutual concern, jointly work out solutions to these issues and translate the concept of a new type of major country relationship into reality.

Under the backdrop that domestic issues have become increasingly acute in the US, the Barack Obama administration might have a growing penchant for multilateralism in its foreign policy. The US is counting on China as a country to cooperate with it on international issues such as denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the Iranian nuclear standoff.

Under such circumstances, the US should shoulder more responsibility in increasing strategic trust with China.

(China Daily 11/19/2013 page8)