Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon!

Thank you for coming. 

Time flies. Exactly today one year ago, I arrived in the Bay Area to be the 14th Chinese Consul General in San Francisco. 

I wish to thank you all for your support to the work of the Consulate-General and myself. And now I would like to take this opportunity to share with you how I feel about my job over the past year. 

There are four main observations.

First, friendship between our two peoples enjoys solid foundation. 

Second, cooperation between our two countries serves mutual interests.

Third, bilateral relationship faces severe challenges.

Fourth, we must work together for a better future.

Let me now elaborate a little bit. 

First, on solid foundation of friendship.

During his state visit to the United States in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the Chinese and US Governors Forum in Seattle. President Xi said, “Relations between countries ultimately rely on the support of the people and serve the people.”  

This is so true.

Over the past year, my colleagues and I have reached out to people from all walks of life in our consular district. Just for your information, our consular district includes Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Nevada. 

We have visited governors, mayors and legislators. We have spoken with university professors and students, business executives and museum curators. And we have been to sports games, cultural performances and trade fairs. 

The overwhelming majority of the people we have met support friendly relations between our two peoples. They want China-US relationship to get better.

China has a long-standing and deep relationship with California and other states in the West Coast. The fact that there is a significant and vibrant Chinese community here also contributes to closer interactions. 

Historically, the Chinese community made important contribution to the economic development in this country. And since they are familiar with both cultures, they are the natural bridge, so to speak, in enhancing mutual understanding and forging closer bonds between the two sides.

They really add to the vitality and diversity of the society here. And they make Chinese culture popular. 

Spring Festival has been officially designated as a public holiday in California. I was very glad to participate in the spring festival night parade this year in San Francisco. Even though there was heavy rain, the turnout was huge and people were excited.

All these have given me a lot of confidence and strength. At the end of the day, what matters most is the aspiration of the people. And there is much in common in terms of what our two peoples want.  

Second, on mutually beneficial cooperation.

Despite the impacts of the pandemic and tension in our relationship, bilateral trade continued to grow last year. 

Trade between our two countries reached nearly 760 billion dollars. According to US statistics, US export of agricultural products to China hit an all-time high at 38.16 billion dollars, up by 16% over the previous year. 

This speaks to the strong complementarity of our two economies. And because of it, the resilience of our trade ties. For both sides, trade helps generate more jobs and improve people’s well-being. According to US-China Business Council report, US exports to China support one million American jobs. Obviously, it is a win-win. 

There are also many success stories of US businesses operating in China.  Many have plans to further expand.  

Starbucks, for example, is expanding very rapidly in China. It already has more than 6,000 outlets in 240 cities in China. More are still to come. It plans to have 3,000 more by 2025. That is a new outlet every 9 hours. If everything goes to plan, it will employ 95,000 people and double its net income by 2025. 

Here is another example. 

Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai produced 710,000 electric vehicles in 2022, accounting for over half of Tesla’s global delivery. It takes less than 45 seconds for a car to roll off the assembly line. It is reported that Tesla has applied to expand its Gigafactory in Shanghai to produce over one million vehicles annually.

Since China readjusted its COVID-related policy, many US companies have come to us for assistance in their visa application. They want to visit their clients in China. Due to the pandemic, quite many of them have not visited China over the past three years. 

The visa section of the Chinese Consulate has been doing its best to meet their request. In fact, my colleagues there have barely had any weekend without working extra hours in office. But we feel happy to be able to facilitate such mutually beneficial cooperation.

Third, on severe challenges.

While we see certain encouraging progress in trade and some other fields, there is no denying that the bilateral relationship is in serious trouble. People on both sides and in the world are frustrated and worried. 

What has gone wrong?

China has been repeatedly portrayed by certain US politicians as United States’ greatest strategic competitor and its most consequential geopolitical challenge. 

Dr. Kissinger and others have long since warned of such self-fulfilling prophecy. By depicting someone as your enemy, you end up having an enemy.  

I just couldn’t imagine what would have happened to our relationship if Nixon and Kissinger had been as much ideologically driven in the 1970s as some of the politicians we see today.

Their extremist fixation on “China threat” has blinded themselves to a real China, and deprived them of the pragmatism that has served our relationship so well in the past decades. 

The vision and courage that enabled both countries to transcend differences and find common ground is rarely seen under the current political climate in the United States. Political correctness seems to be everywhere. The argument about national security is overstretched and inflated to disrupt projects and exchanges that are otherwise completely normal. 

As a result, both sides suffer, and so does the rest of the world. 

Of the numerous challenges, one of the worst arises from the US failure to honor its own commitments on the question of Taiwan.

Let me first quote for you some provisions from the August 17 Communique on US arms sales to Taiwan. This communique is one of the three joint communiques underpinning the China-US relationship.

It says: “The United States Government attaches great importance to its relations with China, and reiterates that it has no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity, or interfering in China’s internal affairs, or pursuing a policy of ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan.’ ”

It further says: “the United States Government states that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, that its arms sales to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or in quantitative terms, the level of those supplied in recent years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, and that it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution.”

That promise was made in 1982. Some forty-plus years have gone by and the United States is still selling weapons to Taiwan. Contrary to its own commitment, the arms sales have exceeded previous level in both qualitative and quantitative terms.

Taiwan is part of China. I will leave it to you to make your own conclusion whether or not selling arms to a part of another country with a secessionist agenda constitutes violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of that country. There is no greater internal affairs than to uphold one’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

That is the reason why we maintain that the Taiwan question is the core of China’s core national interests. No room for compromise. No one should underestimate Chinese people’s determination, resolve and capability to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

And finally, on the future of our relationship. 

Elon Musk said in one recent interview that tension between US and China “should be a concern for everyone.” 

I think he is right. We are two major countries. Our relationship not just affects our two nations, but it has global implications. So much is at stake in this relationship that everyone is, indeed, a stakeholder. For the sake of our common interests and the future of mankind, we must work together to get it right. 

I visited the Jack Lund Schofield Middle School in Las Vegas last year. The school is named after Dr. Schofield, a flying tiger hero. 

I was there to honor the memory of flying tigers together with the faculty and students. We also launched the Flying Tigers Youth Leadership Program. 

The school has an enlightening motto: We choose today what we become tomorrow.

The relationship can only be as good as we want it to be. 

It will get us nowhere just to feel frustrated, worried or even angry. Action is needed.

We need to speak up more to awaken the general public to the importance of keeping our relationship on a healthy and stable track. We need to take a more clear-cut stand in opposing any rhetoric or move that is in violation of the three joint communiques. 

Above all, we need to ensure that what our two presidents agreed last November in their Bali meeting is followed through in good faith and that our two countries have mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. This is how we should get along with each other. 

Useful inspirations may be drawn from ping-pong diplomacy. The more difficult the situation, the more necessary to encourage people-to-people exchanges. There should be more ping-pong diplomacy. And of course, more direct flights to be restored.   

Lately there have been some welcome developments. Director Wang Yi of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had candid, substantive and constructive discussion in Vienna. They spent many hours together and covered a wide range of important subjects. 

State Counselor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang also met with US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in Beijing. State Counselor Qin urged the US side to work together with the Chinese side to get the relationship back to the right track. 

Hopefully, these high-level exchanges of views will be conducive to reducing tension and bringing more certainty to the relationship.

And of course, APEC is coming to San Francisco. The APEC Informal Leaders Meeting will take place in San Francisco in November. It will be a big event for the city, and I wish San Francisco every success. 

China attaches great importance to economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and stands ready to make its contribution to the building of Asia-Pacific community with a shared future. 

So much about my observations about my job over the past year.

Once again, I wish to thank you, friends from the media, for your understanding and support. The press has a very big role to play, especially in shaping public opinion. 

One problem people encounter today is misinformation or even disinformation. As far as the coverage of China is concerned, I would appreciate it if all of you could do more to help correct some of the wrong perceptions about China, like your early colleague did about Communist China in 1930. This is “Life” magazine, and Miss Agnes Smedley, she reported Chairman Mao. This is the original copy from 1937, January 25th. So I would appreciate it if you can follow her step and report objectively on what China is really about.

For example, China is often accused by some of having the ambition to challenge and replace the United States. As a matter of fact, China has no interest in displacing the United States. What China is most interested in is delivering better life to the Chinese people and contributing to building a global community with a shared future. 

As the 20th Party Congress convened last year made it clear, the central task of the Communist Party of China will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization.

This path will feature modernization of a huge population and with common prosperity for all, material and cultural-ethical advancement, harmony between humanity and nature, and peaceful development. 

China is committed to deepening reform and opening more widely to the outside world. 

The Chinese economy is regaining its growth momentum in the wake of the COVID pandemic. During the Labor Day holidays at the beginning of this month, a total of 274 million domestic trips were made, displaying tremendous resilience and potential of the Chinese economy. 

Many organizations including the IMF and others have readjusted upward their economic forecast about China’s growth. China will continue to serve as one of the key engines and account for one-third of global growth. 

In short, China pursuing a Chinese path to modernization will present the world with more opportunities for common progress. And of course, in this process, a healthy and stable China-US relationship will be much desired and serve everyone’s interest.

Thank you.