During their bilateral meeting in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday said the Taiwan issue was the most important matter in US-China relations and warned that the two countries could come into conflict if it was not handled properly, state news agency Xinhua reported. Xi Jinping further stated that safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the biggest common denominator between China and the US.
"The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations," Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV. "If mishandled, the two nations could collide or even come into conflict, pushing the entire China-US relationship into a highly perilous situation," he said.
Xi Jinping called for "cooperation" instead of "confrontation" between China and the United States during his bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump in Beijing, as part of the two-day visit to the country, noting that the two biggest economies in the world "should be partners, not rivals".
Speaking during the high-level meeting, Xi said the world was undergoing "a transformation not seen in a century" and stressed the importance of stable China-US relations amid global uncertainty.
"The whole world is watching our meeting. Currently, a transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent. The world has come to a new crossroads," the Chinese President said.
Raising broader questions about the future of ties between the two global powers, Xi questions if the US and China can overcome the "Thucydides trap" and venture into a "new paradigm" of relations.
"Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations? Can we meet global challenges together and provide more stability for the world? Can we, in the interests of the well-being of our two peoples and the future of humanity, build a brighter future together for our bilateral relations?" Xi said.
