China’s top diplomat to the United States Xie Feng has told a prominent gathering in New York that US-China relations were at a “historical crossroads”, while acknowledging the winds and bends in the bilateral relationship, following this month’s leaders’ summit.
“Two weeks ago, President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump had a successful meeting in Beijing. Together, they agreed on a new vision of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability,” he told the China Institute of America centennial gala on Thursday.
In the midtown ballroom where Xie spoke, a robot posed for photos with guests while attendees mingled, including Christopher Nixon Cox, grandson of former US president Richard Nixon, Chinese-American actress Joan Chen, television presenter Yue-Sai Kan and fashion designer Vera Wang.
The Nixon, Bush and Rockefeller families were among the honorees at the event, along with the former chief executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee-hwa, who was represented at the event by his son Andy Tung.
“Tonight, our two countries face tensions, new questions, new uncertainty. The work of bridge building has never been finished, and in some seasons it feels harder than ever,” Nixon Cox said in his speech.
These comments come just two weeks after Trump and Xi met in Beijing, with few deliverables and no real change on structural issues such as an unbalanced trade relationship, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and tensions around Taiwan.
