China, US pledge to boost cooperation, exchange

WASHINGTON - China and the United States reaffirmed Wednesday the importance of and commitment to deepening practical cooperation and enhancing the people-to-people exchange in ensuring a better future for the China-US ties.

At a meeting at the White House, visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong and US Vice President Joe Biden discussed a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues, including Biden's upcoming visit to China in early December and China's recently-announced agenda for deepening reforms.

Liu is visiting the United States to co-chair the fourth round of the China-US High-level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange with US Secretary of State John Kerry, which will be held here on Thursday.

Noting that China-US diplomatic ties were established shortly after the onset of China's reform and opening-up policy, Liu applauded the great progress made in the development of bilateral ties and tremendous changes that have occurred in China since then.

She noted the important consensus reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama at their June summit in California on building a new model of major-country relations, and the just-concluded Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which has drawn a general blueprint for fully deepening reforms in China.

Liu said that China's determination and efforts to deepen reforms and open up wider to the outside have created important opportunities for achieving win-win cooperation between the United States and China in future.

She expressed the hope that the two countries will strive to increase the depth and width of their people-to-people exchange, thus to solidify the public support and social basis for building a new model of bilateral ties.

Also on Wednesday, Liu attended with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the China-US Dialogue on Early Childhood Development Strategy at the Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution.

She also toured the Confucius Institute in George Washington University and inaugurated the Confucius Institute US Center.

China and the United States launched the High-level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange in 2010, and have since achieved remarkable results in strengthening mutual understanding and cooperation in areas of education, science and technology, culture, sports, women's issues and young people.