Build bridges between two peoples

The two economies are deeply integrated, and both face new tasks in development, Xi said during his meeting with Biden in Bali, adding that it is in our mutual interest to benefit from each other's development.

The world is big enough for the two countries to develop themselves and prosper together, said the Chinese leader.

Many enterprises that participated in the CIIE in Shanghai are going to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in San Francisco. The two coastal cities are sister cities. In 2005, Gavin Newsom, then San Francisco's mayor, paid his first visit to China, marking the 25th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between the two cities.

In October, Xi met with Newsom, who is now governor of the U.S. state of California, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

No other bilateral relationship is more important than the one between the United States and China, and the US-China relationship is vital to the future of the United States and bears on the well-being of its people, Newsom said, adding that California is willing to be China's long-term, stable and strong partner.

As China and the United States seek cooperation, bridges should be built between the two peoples, not walls, said Howard Schultz, co-founder of the Schultz Family Foundation and former chairman of Starbucks.

During a visit to the United States in 2015, Xi shared his stories of Liangjiahe with the audience at a grand dinner held in the city of Seattle.

Liangjiahe is a village in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, where Xi had lived and worked for about seven years as an "educated youth" starting in 1969.

The stories deeply impressed Schultz, who wrote a letter to Xi in 2020. In his letter, Schultz congratulated China on the near completion of the plan to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, which was fully achieved in 2021, and expressed his respect for the Chinese people and Chinese culture.

In his reply, Xi said China's embarking upon the new journey to fully build a modern socialist country will provide broader space for enterprises from across the world, including Starbucks and other American companies, to develop in China.

Xi said he hopes that the coffee company will make active efforts to promote China-US economic and trade cooperation as well as the two countries' relations.

"Cooperation between the US and China will strengthen both countries and benefit the world," said Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. "It is correct and indeed possible."