CHINESE President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday that China is willing to cooperate with the United States as both sides manage their differences and work together to respond to global challenges, according to Chinese state media.

Whether or not the United States and China could establish the “right” way of getting along would be crucial to the world, Xi said in a letter delivered at an annual dinner of New York-headquartered National Committee on United States-China Relations.

Xi’s call for more stable bilateral ties, which he says should be built on the principles of “mutual respect, peaceful co-existence and win-win cooperation”, comes before a key visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Washington later this week.

The trip from Thursday through Saturday by the top Chinese diplomat will be the highest-level in-person engagement ahead of an expected meeting between US President Joe Biden and Xi in San Francisco at the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.

Several top US officials including US State Secretary Antony Blinken met their Chinese counterparts in Beijing this summer.

Washington’s top priority has been to ensure the intense competition between the world’s two biggest economies and their disagreements over a host of issues from trade to Taiwan and the South China Sea does not veer into conflict.

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“Chinese observers believe the visit (by Wang) will pave the way for a possible meeting between the heads of the two states but added that Washington needs to make concrete efforts to address Beijing’s concerns and show its sincerity,” China’s state-controlled Global Times wrote in a commentary. REUTERS