Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner,
Vice Premier Wang Qishan,
Mr. John Frisbie,
Mr. Stephen A. Orlins,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,

One of the happiest moments for me every time I come to the United States is to meet with old friends from friendly organizations to renew friendship and make new friends. And let me begin by thanking the US-China Business Council, the National Committee on US-China Relations and other groups for your gracious hospitality accorded to Vice Premier Wang Qishan, to myself and to the entire Chinese delegation.

The China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogues have come to a successful conclusion. You must be interested to know how the talks have been going. What I want to tell you, my friends, is that we have had broad, in-depth and candid discussions, which yielded fruitful results. People often say that it is always hard to get something started, but we have made a good start in the Strategic and Economic Dialogues! History has proved and will continue to prove that the decision made by our two presidents in London last April to have the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogues was a right one. Both Vice Premier Wang and I are grateful to Secretary Clinton and Secretary Geithner for their close cooperation and warm hospitality.

All of you here tonight, if not the whole world, may have noted President Obama's remarks at the opening ceremony of the S&ED yesterday, when he said that he takes a different view from those who think that America will try to contain China's ambitions and there is something to fear in a rising China. Tonight, I wish to make clear with all seriousness that China's development and rise are nothing to fear about. It is good for America and the whole world. What it presents is a rare historic opportunity.

You may still want to know: what is on the mind of the Chinese people?

Have no doubt about it. The one thing on the mind of the Chinese people for several, a dozen and even several dozens of generations is to achieve the peaceful development of China. We work to promote harmony and development at home and peace and cooperation in the world. And we work with other countries in the world to build a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity. This is our basic principle that will remain unchanged for a hundred years, and even a thousand years to come. It shows the strategic intention and strategic direction of China. China has had no history or tradition of seeking expansion or hegemony. What we have are millennia-old political and cultural traditions, at the core of which are benevolence and the love of peace. What we value are peace as being the most precious, benevolence and amicable relations with neighbors, and amity and harmony among nations. China does not act as a leader of the world, nor does it compete with others for big power status or hegemony. This is the set basic state policy of China.

What we say we are, we are. China seeking hegemony in the world sounds like nothing but a fairy tale. Just see it for yourselves. Politically, China doesn't export its social system or development model. We respect the American people's choice of social system and development path. You build your capitalism with American characteristics while we build socialism with Chinese characteristics. On the economic front, we will continue to focus on our development and will be happy to see America maintain its prosperity and development. We are committed to having more and better economic and technical cooperation with the United States for the purpose of common prosperity. In the military field, we are in no arms race with America. Our priority is to make life better for our 1.3 billion people, so that they will have better food, better clothes, better housing conditions and enjoy more convenience when they travel. We can not afford to and will not spend a lot of money on our military. From a geopolitical point of view, we do not have the intention to squeeze the United States out of Asia. We never ever tried to. The fact is, the United States has not been squeezed out of Asia. Its presence in Asia is only growing.

To sum up, to the United States and indeed the whole world, China's fundamental strategic direction is predictable, transparent and based on good will. The Americans can rest assured in dealing with China and having China as a friend. President Obama and Secretary Clinton have both emphasized that China-US relations are the most important bilateral relations in the world. For our two countries, the most detrimental is for either side to see the other as a threat or enemy, and to treat the other with suspicion. It is no good option to slip into contention, which wears both of us down. What benefits us most is to take each other as a reliable cooperation partner and do what we can to expand common ground and increase cooperation. We sincerely hope to work with the United States to build a new type of state-to-state relationship of long-term stability and healthy and sustainable development.

What shall we do then in the next stage to ensure that China-US relations will continue to make progress based on the good start since President Obama took Office? How do we make sure that our relations stay on the course defined by President Hu and President Obama? How shall we turn the good vision of both sides into policies and actions to move our relations up to new heights? I believe that in order to further advance the grand cause of China-US relations, both sides need to cultivate awareness in the following areas:

First, awareness of the overall picture, or "Daju". It might be difficult to translate the Chinese term "Daju". To put it simply, we need to view and handle our bilateral relations from a strategic height and a long-term perspective and pay special attention to mutual respect for each other's core interests so as to maintain long-term stability of our relations.

Second, awareness of our responsibilities. Facing growing and graver global challenges, China, the biggest developing country, and the United States, the biggest developed country, have to join hands to turn challenges into opportunities and promote stability and prosperity so that every family in our countries and indeed the whole world will be able to enjoy life in the bright sunshine.

Third, awareness of the importance to seek win-win progress. Mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation should be an important principle in managing state-to-state relations and conducting extensive international cooperation in a globalized world. As we are all in the same boat sailing in stormy waters, we need to work with each other to brave the storm and seek win-win outcomes. China stands ready to conduct positive and comprehensive cooperation with the United States in the spirit of mutual benefit and win-win progress to realize common prosperity and development.

I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to people from all walks of life in America who are committed to the growth of China-US relations! The friendly groups and our friends from both countries constitute a strong force driving our relations forward despite various difficulties and obstacles. Each little step forward in our relations is attributable to your commitment and efforts. And no achievement in our relations would have been possible without your dedication and hard work. If we are to seize new opportunities and realize even greater growth of China-US relations in the new historical era, we still have to count on your continued effort and contribution. As a Chinese saying goes, a fire burns brighter if everyone adds wood to it. A brighter future of China-US relations will be made through the participation and hard work of more and more people from various sectors in both countries.

Before I conclude, I want to share with you a piece of happy news. In fact, Secretary Clinton already knew it the day before yesterday. Last month today, I became a grandfather. Every time I hold my adorable little granddaughter in my arms and look at her innocent face, I would think what kind of a world we should leave for our children and grandchildren. What kind of future should we build for them? I am sure that like me, you all want our children to live in a world free of war, hunger, disaster and disease, where they can breathe the fresh air under the blue sky and grow up healthily and happily in the bright sunshine. Let us, the Chinese and American people, and people of the whole world, join hands and work to make it a reality.

Thank you!