SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) — The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden is “the most important diplomatic event of the year, certainly for both China and the United States and possibly the world,” said Kuhn Foundation President Robert Lawrence Kuhn said on Wednesday.
“I have been saying for many years that world peace and prosperity depend on stable, strong, forward-looking and mutually reinforcing relations between China and the United States,” Kuhn said in an interview with Xinhua, referring to the Xi-Biden meeting in Filoli Garden, California, held earlier on the same day.
“Creating a ‘base’ in China-US relations that ensures that relations do not deteriorate further will be a tremendous contribution to global peace and prosperity. Then both countries will be able to carefully rebuild and find certain areas of agreement and mutual benefit,” Kuhn said.
“The very fact that the summit took place is of course the most important signal, because neither side would allow the meeting if they were not very confident that there would be a successful outcome,” said Kuhn. “However, concrete agreements, for example on climate change, on fentanyl precursors or on the formal communication plan, are important because they illustrate and reinforce the commitment of both sides.”
Kuhn said both countries are responsible for improving relations. “Furthermore, as the two strongest economies and militaries in the world, the United States and China have an additional responsibility to the global community,” Kuhn said.
More specifically, the veteran China expert said, there would be “clear and direct economic benefits” for the United States and China to work together in terms of classic economic efficiencies that raise living standards in both countries with more goods and services of higher quality and quality lower costs.
“For several years, I have offered three prescriptions for U.S.-China relations: First, don’t make things worse. For the first time in years, both sides appear to be trying to do just that. Second, find small positive things, things you can do together. Regular communication is certainly key. Third, let time pass peacefully. Time has its own way of solving problems that may seem insoluble,” Kuhn said.