On March 19, 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. President's Special Representative and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew at the Great Hall of the People.
Xi said President Obama's sending of Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew as a special representative to visit China shows the great importance the U.S. president attaches to developing China-U.S. relations. China is ready to work with the U.S. to carry forward their relations into the future and treat the bilateral ties from a strategic height and long-term perspective; increase dialogue, mutual trust and cooperation; respect and take each other's vital interests and key concerns into consideration; and successfully manage their differences with the aim of constructing China-U.S. cooperative partnership and finding a path for a new type major country relationship.
Xi pointed out that China and the United States are closely linked and share converging interests. He referred the economic ties between the two nations as "a ballast stone" with a nature of mutual benefits, urging the two nations to objectively view each other's development stages, respect each other's interests for further development and regard the other party's opportunity and challenges as its own so as to seek more common interests and create more new highlights for cooperation. He urged both sides to achieve positive interaction and common development for the benefit of the two peoples. Xi also voiced his hope that the two sides could step up their coordination via bilateral mechanisms such as the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue, strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination and cooperation within multilateral frameworks of the Group of 20 and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation to promote global economic governance and score a robust, sustainable and balanced growth in the world economy.
Lew said that President Obama is firmly committed to strengthening bilateral cooperation and maintaining the continuity of U.S.-China relations. As the world's two biggest economies, the United States and China have responsibilities of vital importance in promoting the economic growth in the two nations and the world at large, Lew said. The United States is willing to continue to maintain high-level exchanges, expand cooperation between the two countries through the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue and other mechanisms, promote healthy competition and properly handle differences. The U.S. side has paid much attention to China's concerns on issues such as investment by Chinese companies in the United States, U.S. exports of high-tech products to China and the recognition of China's market economy status, Lew said, adding that the United States is ready to strive for the resolution of these issues.
Both sides also exchanged views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula, cyber security and other issues, on which Xi expounded China's principled positions.
Finance Minister Lou Jiwei and Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui attended the meeting.