On January 4, 2023, Foreign Minister Ambassador Qin Gang published an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled "Stable U.S.-China Relations Stake the Future Fate of Our Planet".
The American poet Eliot once wrote that the end is where we begin. I left the United States this week to begin a new journey in my life, but the images of my work and life in the United States are still in my mind.
I have visited 22 states in the U.S. and discovered a different America outside of Washington. In the spring when hope is sown, I visited Kimberly Farms in Iowa, which President Xi Jinping visited in 2012, to test drive agricultural tractors and taste local produce. In the fall, I went into the fields of a soybean and corn farm in Missouri, where I was deeply impressed by the simplicity and hospitality of American farmers, and felt that U.S.-China agricultural cooperation would benefit not only our two countries, but also reduce the instability of global food supply and address global climate change. I was a guest Chinese teacher at the Chinese Immersion School in Minneapolis, where a student recently won the global championship of the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese language show for elementary school students. In factories in Ohio and California, American workers told me that these Chinese-invested companies are creating jobs and providing a secure livelihood for them and their families. At the ports of Long Beach, California and Boston, Massachusetts, I saw mountains of containers traveling between China and the United States and learned firsthand that the U.S.-China trade is highly interdependent and that "decoupling and breaking the chain" is not in the interest of either party. At the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, I kicked off a baseball game to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Nanjing and St. Louis as the first pair of U.S.-China friendship cities. I also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the arrival of giant pandas in the United States with my American friends.
There are many, many more such wonderful, vivid scenes. The experience of being in the U.S. is an unforgettable memory for me as a diplomat and will be a valuable asset for my life. In my new position, promoting the development of China-U.S. relations will remain one of my important missions.
At the time of my appointment as Chinese Ambassador to the U.S., Sino-U.S. relations were facing a complex and difficult situation, with almost all dialogue and exchange mechanisms between the two countries halted, Chinese companies suppressed by unjustified sanctions, and the impact of the epidemic, which severely hampered humanistic exchanges between the two sides. China is often seen as the "most serious competitor" of the United States.
As ambassador to the United States, my mission is to promote exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States in all fields, and to work to promote the stability, improvement and development of bilateral relations. Advancing the relationship requires the joint efforts of both sides. I communicate openly with U.S. federal government officials, maintain a smooth working relationship, properly handle difficult issues, including the Taiwan issue, and promote progress in important areas of engagement and cooperation. I met with more than 80 members of the U.S. House and Senate to listen to each other and express our respective positions and concerns, even if the other side is a well-known "hawk" on China. I had in-depth exchanges with the U.S. strategic community, hoping to work together to think about and promote a stable, predictable, and constructive framework for U.S.-China relations. I met extensively with representatives of the U.S. business community and felt deeply their confidence in the Chinese market and their desire to cooperate with China. I visited U.S. universities and helped U.S. students who were hampered by the epidemic to return to China. I gave many interviews to the U.S. media, and although there were occasional exchanges, I appreciated their willingness to listen to the Chinese ambassador's voice and understand China's positions and propositions.
I firmly believe that the door to U.S.-China relations has been opened and will not be closed. I also firmly believe that the American people, like the Chinese people, are broad-minded, hard-working and friendly people, and that a healthy and stable U.S.-China relationship is a matter of the future destiny of our two peoples and our planet. The U.S.-China relationship should not be a zero-sum game in which you lose and I win, or you rise and I fall, but a wide enough planet for China and the United States to develop and prosper together. The success of China and the United States is an opportunity, not a challenge, for each other. We cannot allow prejudice and misperceptions to lead to confrontation and conflict between the great peoples of our two countries. Under the strategic guidance of our two heads of state, both sides should find the right way to get along in the interest of maintaining world peace and prosperity.
This is not a straightforward path, and it will require unremitting efforts from all sectors in China and the United States, but history will prove that our efforts and dedication today are necessary and worthwhile.
I will treasure my precious memories in the United States when I return home. The poet Eliot also wrote that reaching the end means a new departure. I believe that the U.S.-China relationship will also eventually return to the right path and keep moving forward.