“Looking ahead, China and the United States can help each other succeed and prosper together, and the key is to follow the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” he said.
To that end, China is willing to explore ways with the US to get along “correctly”, Xi said, while urging Kissinger to play a constructive role in bringing relations back on the right track.
Kissinger said relations between the two countries were “a matter of world peace and the progress of human society”, and he was willing to work to boost mutual understanding, according to the CCTV report.
On Wednesday, Wang hailed Kissinger’s “historic contributions” and “irreplaceable role” in US-China relations, saying US policy towards China required the “diplomatic wisdom” of Kissinger and the “political courage” of former US president Richard Nixon, whose historic visits to China in the 1970s paved the way for the normalisation of US-China ties.
“China cherishes friendships established with old friends,” Wang said. “China maintains a high degree of continuity in its policy towards the United States, and fundamentally follows the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation proposed by President Xi Jinping.”
“China’s development has strong endogenous momentum and inevitable historical logic. It is impossible to try to transform China, and it is even more impossible to encircle and contain China.”
“No matter how difficult it is, both sides should treat each other as equals and maintain contact. It is unacceptable to try to isolate or separate from each other,” the ministry quoted Kissinger as saying.