Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng said on Wednesday that the two countries need to explore the right way to get along in the new era.

The ambassador made the remarks when delivering a keynote speech at the welcome event hosted by the U.S.-China Business Council.

Noting that he is glad to be back in the U.S. after 13 years, Xie said that now it has changed to "a world of turbulence, with serious challenges in China-U.S. relations."

Xie then said that after reaching out to American friends from all walks of life upon his arrival in D.C. two weeks ago, he found that these people's biggest concern is that China and the United States are slipping into conflict and confrontation.

"If the world is to become better, the China-U.S. relationship must stop getting worse."

He also pointed out that many American friends want to speak up for China-U.S. cooperation, but they are afraid of being "politically incorrect."

"If the China-U.S. relationship gets worse, the business community can hardly stay unaffected." 

Highly attaching importance to its relationship with the U.S. as always, China is ready to work with the U.S. side to follow the right direction, enhance dialogue and cooperation and take concrete actions to deliver on the common understandings between the two presidents, so as to bring this relationship back to the right track at an early date, Xie stressed.

Urging the U.S. side to respect China's choice of development path and social system and China's core interests and major concerns, Xie pointed out that the pressing task is to bring the Taiwan question, the biggest risk, under control. 

"The Taiwan authorities are seeking U.S. support for their independence agenda while some in the U.S. are proposing to use Taiwan region to contain China. These are the biggest threats to peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits," he said.

At present, the most fundamental thing is to adhere to the one-China principle; the most important is to abide by the three joint communiqués with real actions; and the most pressing is to match words with deeds and oppose adventurism and provocation by the "Taiwan independence" forces, he said.

Noticing that the U.S. recently has expressed its non-intention to "decouple with China," but some are using the word "de-risking," Xie emphasized that "de-risking" should not be used as a cover for "de-coupling."

National security is not an excuse for protectionism and one country's security cannot be built on the insecurity of others, he added.