Liu: China plans 'fruitful' visit by Trump

Vice-Premier Liu Yandong (right) greets White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner and his wife, first daughter Ivanka Trump, at the Chinese embassy in Washington on Wednesday. Zhao Huanxin / China Daily

Ramping up cooperation in science and technological innovation between China and the US is in line with the interests of both countries and beneficial to the rest of the world, visiting Vice-Premier Liu Yandong said in Washington on Wednesday.

Speaking at the China-US Innovation-Driven Development Forum at the Brookings Institution, Liu also said China welcomes talent from the United States and other countries to start businesses and engage in innovation in China.

In the evening, Liu addressed a reception to mark the 68th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China at the Chinese embassy.

US President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the president attended, along with a host of US and Chinese dignitaries.

Liu said Beijing will work with the US side to ensure President Trump's first state visit to China yields "fruitful results".

Liu is expected to co-chair the first China-US social and people-to-people dialogue with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Washington on Thursday.

The vice-premier also said the two sides should conscientiously implement the important consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and President Trump, expand mutually-beneficial cooperation on various areas, respect each other's core interests and major concerns, and manage and control their differences, so as to ensure the bilateral relations make steady headway.

The dialogue will further boost the understanding and friendship between the two peoples and help maintain the momentum of the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations in the long term, Liu said on Tuesday when she attended the China-US University Presidents and Think Tank Forum at Columbia University in New York.

At the Brookings forum on Wednesday, the vice-premier recalled that the first China-US intergovernmental agreement signed in 1979 during China's reform architect Deng Xiaoping's historic visit to the US was an agreement on cooperation in science and technology.

In the 38 years since China and the US forged formal diplomatic relations, the two sides have been engaged in technological innovation cooperation in various areas and on multiple levels, which has continuously produced landmark results and yielded "fruitful results" in terms of grooming talent.

"Strengthening cooperation in technological innovation between the world's largest developed and the largest developing economies is a strategy and trend that conforms to the fundamental interests of both countries," Liu said at the opening of the forum.

Such cooperation will also be of tremendous significance in helping to pull the global economy out of the recession and guide the innovation and development of the world, she said.

The two countries could only make progress in this regard, instead of retreating from such a trend, she said.

Liu suggested focusing China-US sci-tech collaboration on the key issues related to sustainable development and the challenges facing the world, targeting the areas that are of mutual concern to the two countries.

Liu also proposed the two sides enhance the exchange of people engaged in science and technology, and spur the training of innovative talent.

China's expenditures on research and development have increased by 11.1 percent annually over the past five years, reaching 1.57 trillion yuan ($237 billion) in 2016 and ranking second only to the US, Liu told the forum.

huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com