A full agenda for US President George W. Bush's visit to China will be arranged and both sides want to ensure the complete success of this visit.
This is what Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told reporters in Beijing on Thursday afternoon at a regular press conference when asked about Sino-US relations and the visit scheduled for later this month.
Kong said that China attaches great importance to the visit, and a second advance group of the United States will arrive in Beijing on February 9 to make preparations and finalize the agenda.
He also noted that during Bush's visit, Chinese President Jiang Zemin will hold talks with Bush to exchange extensive and in-depth views on international and regional issues of common concern and host a welcoming banquet.
He revealed that the two heads of state will also meet with the press.
Kong stressed that this working visit is “very important,” believing that through joint efforts, bilateral relations in various fields will be furthered.
On former US President Richard Nixon's visit to China 30 years ago on February 21, Kong said that Chinese and foreign media at that time viewed that visit as an ice-breaker, constituting a milestone in bilateral relations and laying an important foundation for the development of future relations.
The Shanghai Communique issued by the two sides during Nixon's visit is a "very important" document which laid a "very good" foundation for furthering bilateral relations and mapped out "very important" guiding principles, Kong added.
He said that China welcomes Bush's coming visit, hoping that constructive relations of cooperation will enter a new phase and become fruitful.
He noted that Sino-US relations, since Jiang and Bush met in October last year in Shanghai, have made positive progress, citing the consensus reached between Jiang and Bush during their meeting on the development of constructive relations of cooperation. He said that the consensus has made clear the direction for bilateral relations.
Since then, said Kong, cooperation in various fields have progressed, and bilateral relations have shown positive development.
Kong added that China holds that China and the US are two influential countries in the world, and the development of friendly cooperation in various fields on the basis of the three Sino-US joint communiques is in the fundamental interests of the two peoples and conducive to peace and stability in the Asian-Pacific region and the world at large.
China is ready to make concerted efforts with the US to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields and to properly handle disputes in order to propel bilateral relations towards a constructive relationship of cooperation, said Kong.
He said the extensive common interests existing between the two countries are an important basis for the development of bilateral relations although there are some disputes between them.
The Chinese side has always held that these disputes should be properly handled with an eye on the general situation, he said.
Noting that the Taiwan issue is the most important and most sensitive one in Sino-US relations, Kong pointed to the "one China" policy reiterated by the US government.
There are also the three joint communiques which enshrined principles on the Taiwan issue, said Kong, urging the US side to abide by the three joint communiques and related commitments and properly handle the Taiwan issue to ensure the smooth, continuous progress of Sino-US relations.
(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2002)
