Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng on Wednesday called for real actions to advance the implementation of a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States.

Quoting President Xi, Xie said that building the constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability is not a slogan, but actions in the same direction.

Xie made the remarks in an essay published on the People's Daily on Wednesday, just before the Chinese president's state visit to the US from September 23 to 25 at the invitation of US President Donald Trump.

The Chinese ambassador urged both sides to take the visit as an opportunity to set the right direction for bilateral ties, expand consensus, remove distractions, and accelerate the pace to continuously advance the ties.

"Head-of-state diplomacy is the 'anchor' of and 'compass' for China-US relations," Xie said.

Noting that 2026 is a pivotal year for bilateral ties, he said President Xi's state visit will surely continue to steer the giant ship of China-US relations forward through winds and storms and toward steady and sustained progress.

"Looking ahead, we hope that under the guidance of the two heads of state, China and the United States will work together to deliver a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability, and find the right path to get along with each other based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation," said the ambassador.

A milestone in China-US ties, international relations

With Xi's upcoming visit, the two presidents are expected to complete reciprocal visits within six months, and the trip will be Xi's second state visit to the US following his first 11 years ago.

"It marks a milestone in China-US ties and international relations," Xie wrote.

He highlighted President Xi's visionary foresight, strategic planning and personal commitment to China-US relations, saying that the Chinese president has charted a new direction, injected new momentum, and opened a new chapter for the development of the ties.

Over the past 11 years, the Communist Party of China has united and led the Chinese people in pressing forward with vigor, Chinese modernization has yielded remarkable achievements, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has become an unstoppable trend, Xie wrote.

Over the past 11 years, China and the United States have weathered many storms in ties, proving that "decoupling and severing supply chains" from China is impossible, a condescending approach will not work, and conflict or confrontation must be avoided, he said.

Over the past 11 years, Xie continued, with profound changes unseen in a century accelerating, and the international landscape having grown volatile and turbulent, the world needs a stable, sound and sustainable China-US relationship more than ever.

Constructive strategic stability

As Xi hosted Trump in Beijing in May, the two leaders agreed on a new vision of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability over the next three years and beyond.

The Chinese side has said, "constructive strategic stability" between China and the United States means positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay, healthy stability with competition within proper limits, constant stability with manageable differences, and lasting stability with expectable peace.

Calling it "the most important political consensus" reached between the two presidents in the successful Beijing summit, the Chinese ambassador said the new positioning sets a new paradigm for major-country relations, and opens up bright prospects for world peace and prosperity.

"We should stay focused on the mainstream and anchor the relationship on positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay," Xie said.

China and the United States share far more common interests than differences, and win-win cooperation is the mainstream and the broader trend, he noted.

The two sides, Xie said, should deliver on the important common understandings reached by the two heads of state, leverage the two major mechanisms for political and diplomatic engagement and economic and trade consultations, and expand exchanges across the military, law enforcement, health, agriculture, tourism, science and technology, and people-to-people and cultural fields.

China and the United States should keep lengthening the list of cooperation and shortening the list of problems, and work together to accomplish more "big things and good things" for both countries and the world at large so as to deliver win-win outcomes for the two countries and for the rest of the world, he urged.

"We should learn from each other and shape a sound and stable relationship with proper competition," Xie said.

The two sides should make progress together by drawing on each other's strengths and build a shared future through healthy competition, not draining each other in a zero-sum game, he stressed.

Noting that artificial intelligence (AI) bears on the well-being of all humanity, Xie said what China and the United States should compete over is how to drive innovation, ensure safety and controllability, promote mutual learning among civilizations, and improve global governance on AI.

Both sides should develop AI for the positive and for good to benefit humanity, he said. "There must be no new 'Silicon Curtain,' still less an AI version of the 'Star Wars' program."

"We should respect each other and maintain constant stability with manageable differences," the ambassador said, urging constructive management of those differences.

The positive progress China and the US have made in several rounds of economic and trade consultations shows that as long as both sides move toward each other in the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit, they can find ways to address each other's concerns, Xie stressed.

"Managing differences hinges on good faith," he said. "Once something is agreed, it must be acted upon, and one must not say one thing and do another."

The United States should stop using such pretexts as "national security," "economic imbalance" and "forced labor" to arbitrarily impose containment or suppression on China, Xie said.

"We should hold fast to the bottom line and maintain lasting stability with expectable peace," Xie said.

Noting that China and the United States both gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation, he said both sides must transcend the "Thucydides Trap," avert the "tragedy of great power politics," and keep to the bottom line of no conflict and no confrontation.

Xie made it clear that China's sovereignty, security, and development interests brook no infringement, and China's four red lines – the Taiwan question, democracy and human rights, the path and system, and the right to development – brooks no challenge.

China is committed to the path of peaceful development, and hopes the United States will move in the same direction with it to promote world peace and tranquility through peaceful coexistence between the two countries, he said.

People-to-people friendship

The Chinese ambassador also stressed the importance of promoting people-to-people friendship between the two countries, hailing it as the wellspring of growth for China-US relations.

Several recent US polls show that American public opinion toward China has warmed and improved, Xie said, adding that the United States ranked first among non-neighboring countries in the number of tourists visiting China in the first half of this year.

According to a survey report published on Monday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, for instance, 57% of Americans say the United States should undertake friendly cooperation and engagement with China.

Xie said the goal of the "50,000 in five years" initiative, announced by President Xi in November 2023 to invite 50,000 young Americans to China for exchange and study over five years, was reached two and a half years ahead of schedule earlier this year.

"The sincere friendship between Chinese and American youth across the Pacific has injected new momentum into the cause of friendship between the two countries," he said.

He also noted the recent reunion of retired US teacher Ronald Sakolsky and Yin Yuzhen, a Chinese woman dedicated to combating desertification, in China. "That's another warm and beautiful page in people-to-people exchanges."

Their story began in 1999, when Sakolsky, who taught English at a school in central China back then, raised $5,000 to help Yin and her husband plant trees and combat desertification. Today, the saplings purchased with the donation have grown into more than 50,000 trees.

Sakolsky reunited with Yin last month during his 10-day trip back to China. Before wrapping up the visit, he said it is precisely the sustained exchanges between ordinary American and Chinese people that build the bridge of US-China friendship, brick by brick.

Citing the story in his Wednesday essay, Xie said this is the deepest and most enduring strength for building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability. "May the bridge endure and the trees stay evergreen."

(Cover: File photo of national flags of China and the United States. /VCG)