From February 27 to March 3, 2018 local time, at the invitation of the government of the United States (US), Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Director of the General Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs and Chinese Initiator of the China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue Liu He visited the US. During his visit, Liu He held consultations with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Director of White House National Economic Council Gary Cohn and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer of the US on China-US economic and trade cooperation and other important issues of common concern.
Liu He expressed that President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump have kept close contact by holding telephone talks, exchanging telegrams and other means since this year, charting the course for the development of China-US relations. Both sides should make joint efforts to well implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, focus on expanding practical cooperation in the economic and trade fields, jointly promote the settlement of prominent issues, and push for the development of China-US economic and trade relations toward a dynamic and balanced direction, in a bid to bring more and greater benefits to the two peoples.
Liu He pointed out that China will further promote comprehensive deepening of reform and expand opening up to the world. China and the US enjoy advantage complementarities in economy and share great potential for cooperation. Maintaining stable development of China-US economic and trade relations conforms to the fundamental interests of both countries, and is also conducive to the development and prosperity of the global economy.
Liu He expounded on China's principled position on such issues as trade balance and market access in the consultations. Both sides had candid and constructive discussions. Both sides believed that both countries should deal with bilateral economic and trade frictions with a cooperative approach rather than in a confrontational manner, so as to maintain the healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations. The two sides agreed to continue conducting communication on relevant issues in the near future in Beijing, in a bid to create conditions for the two countries to deepen cooperation in the next step. These consultations are conducive for both sides to deepening understanding and promoting cooperation.
During his stay in the US, Liu He also had discussions and exchanges with personages from the business community and famous experts and scholars of the US respectively, and met with principals of relevant international institutions.