On April 14^th, 2004, Jiang Zemin, Chairman of the Central Military Commission of China, met with visiting US Vice President Dick Cheney in Zhongnanhai.

Jiang Zemin said, " I have met with President Bush a few times and reached consensus on making efforts to develop constructive and cooperative relations between the two countries. In recent years, the overall momentum of development of bilateral relations is good. Although there are some differences, coordination and cooperation between the two sides have been continuously developing in many areas including in the military field, which is good to the two countries as well as the whole world."

Jiang Zemin said the Taiwan issue is a matter of China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and a matter of the future trend of China-US relations and even peace and stability in Asia-Pacific. China adheres to the basic guideline of "one country, two systems" and is willing to exert its utmost sincerity and make greatest efforts possible to realize the peaceful reunification of the two sides across the Taiwan Straits. However, China will never allow anyone, by any means, to split Taiwan away from the rest of China. China hopes that the US will honor its commitments on the Taiwan issue and refrain from sending any erroneous message to forces seeking "Taiwan independence". If the Taiwan issue can be addressed properly, there will be more space for the development of China-US relations.

Cheney made positive comments on the development of US-China relations. He said that over the past few years, the two sides have conducted wonderful cooperation in various areas. The US government will continue to adhere to the one-China policy and abide by the three Sino-US joint communiqués, not support "Taiwan independence" and oppose any unilateral action attempting to change the status quo of Taiwan. US-China relations are of great importance and the US is willing to make efforts to push forward the continuous development of relations between the two countries.