On November 21, 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with U.S. President George W. Bush in Lima. Both sides exchanged in-depth views on bilateral ties and major global and regional issues of common concern, including coping with the international financial crisis, promoting the world economic development and safeguarding world peace.

Sino-U.S. relations have made significant headway thanks to concerted efforts in the last seven years, said Hu. Bilateral contacts at the highest and all the other levels remain frequent, and the mechanism of Sino-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) and strategic dialogue has been established and yielded remarkable results, said Hu. Bilateral cooperation in areas like economy and trade, combating terrorism, law enforcement, culture, education, energy and environmental protection, continues to be expanded and deepened, and both countries also maintain effective communication and coordination in major international and regional issues, which has promoted Sino-U.S. relations.

“The most important experience we gained is that we should proceed from a strategic and long-term perspective, take a firm hold of the main course of the Sino-U.S. constructive and cooperative relations, increase mutual trust, enhance cooperation and deal with disagreements and sensitive issues properly, in particular, the Taiwan question," the Chinese president stressed after reviewing the development of the Sino-U.S. relations over the past years. The Taiwan question concerns China's key interests and remains the most important and sensitive issue in the Sino-U.S. relations, Hu said, noting that the one-China principle can never be changed. At the moment, the relationship between the United States and China is going through a pivotal period and China is willing to work with the United States to maintain its sound development and push for healthy, stable development of bilateral ties, he added.

Bush said this may be his last meeting with President Hu Jintao during his term as the U.S. president. Bush said he was glad to have worked with President Hu in the past few years in pushing U.S.-China relations to today’s level. He pledged to continue to help promote the development of bilateral ties.

Hu said Sino-U.S. trade relations have been developing rapidly in recent years, bringing tangible benefits to both countries and their peoples. Against the background of the current international financial crisis, maintaining stable development of Sino-U.S. trade relations is of greater significance to overcoming adverse effect caused by the crisis. He said China is ready to work with the U.S. to advance the Doha round of talks and take concrete actions to prevent trade and investment protectionism and push forward bilateral economic and trade relations based on the principle of equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. The fifth Sino-U.S. strategic economic dialogue will be held in Beijing early next month. Hu expressed hope that both sides will make sound preparation for the dialogue to ensure its success.

Stressing the importance of the trade relations between the two countries, Bush urged both sides to make joint efforts to advance the Doha round of trade negotiations and take earnest measures to prevent trade protectionism.

Speaking of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington on Nov. 15, Hu said the international community should earnestly implement the consensus reached at the summit and take effective measures to stabilize the global financial market. He also urged all countries in the world to make all-out efforts to relieve the impact caused by the financial crisis on the real economy and avoid a global economic recession. China will continue to adopt effective measures to maintain a stable and moderately fast economic growth so as to play a constructive role in helping maintain the stability of the world economy, he added.

Bush appreciated China's active participation in the G20 summit and lauded the constructive role that China played at the meeting.

The two leaders also exchanged views on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, the Iranian nuclear issue, and the Doha round of trade talks and agreed to keep close communication on these issues.

Ling Jihua, Wang Huning and Dai Bingguo attended the meeting.