China and US can resolve differences through engagement, says US ambassador Max Baucus
'Constructive engagement' is the key to maintaining good ties, ambassador Max Baucus says
The United States and China are both crucial players in ensuring security in Asia-Pacific and can overcome their differences through "constructive engagement", Washington's ambassador to Beijing said yesterday.
In his first major public address on Sino-US ties since he took up his post in March, Max Baucus indicated the US would maintain a presence in Asia and urged both sides to manage their differences. "Security in the region depends in large part on the constructive engagement between the US and China," he told the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, where he outlined his nation's hopes for Sino-US relations.
Baucus said the US would deepen engagement with China on critical global security issues.
Baucus said the two countries should be able to "work together on any problem", and dismissed as "simply untrue" concerns that the US sought to contain China.
"Nothing in the US-China relationship is pre-ordained," he said. "Conflicts between a rising power and an established power are not inevitable. It's up to us."
The US welcomed a strong, stable and prosperous China, he added .