Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to the United States from April 18 to 21 will again push exchanges between the two countries to a new height. In the meantime, the relations will also become a focal point of international attention..

China is the largest developing country in the world, while the US is the most developed one. This means the two could be complementary and beneficial to each other in many aspects.

Over the past few years, as top-level visits between the two countries became increasingly frequent, economic and trade cooperation witnessed rapid growth and exchanges among non-governmental circles turned out to be unusually active, the Sino-U.S. relations have entered into its "best period" ever in 30 years.

But there is no doubt that the Sino-U.S. relations are not always smooth, not only small disputes, but contradictions or frictions often occurred. "Sino-U.S. relations are complex", as U.S. President George W. Bush put it.

Indeed, both should be more prudent in the face of such complex bilateral relations.

First of all, the two should consult calmly on some matters and try to avoid being emotional when handling problems.

It is normal and unavoidable that the peoples of the two have misunderstandings on each other in the aspects of politics, diplomacy, trade and culture because of different history backgrounds and social systems.

What is crucial is that both sides could make full use of wisdom and figure out measures to seek common ground and eliminate differences.

The US should not always criticize China's social system under the excuses of "human rights" and "democracy", nor should it force China to make trade concessions by threatening "sanctions" or "punishment".

Of course, China should also be cautious and calm when handling some matters, especially urgent ones. For some thorny problems, more thoughts should be given. As for ordinary ones, the principle of "focusing on major questions while giving a free hand to small ones " should be applied.

Secondly, the two are supposed to cooperate sincerely and prevent general issues from being politicized. It is not easy for the Sino-US ties, particularly the trade ones, to arrive at today's level.

According to China's statistics from 2001 to 2005, trade volume between the two rose 27.4 percent year-on-year and the US exports to China increased by 21.5 percent, while the US exports to China last year surged by 118 percent over 2001, or 4.9 times that of US exports to the rest of the world.

In 2005, China jumped to US No.4 exporting market from 2001's ninth place, which has greatly accelerated US export growth. America is China's second largest trade partner and China is the third largest for US.

The closer bilateral ties are actually good things, but some people in the US intentionally make things more complicated by taking the advantage of some unavoidable contradictions between the two.

Some people began to spread "China threat" after seeing China's rapid economic development or accuse China of "manipulating RMB exchange rate" and "unfair trade" when noticing the widening Sino-US trade deficit.

As a matter of fact, even many US economists like Steve Roach and Joseph Stiglitz hold that American economic problems have little to do with China. Former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and US Treasury Secretary Joho Snow also said that RMB exchange rate adjustment would not change the US trade deficit.

The trade deficit is a fact, but China is making efforts in intellectual property rights protection and market admission. For these problems, the two sides need to communicate in a cool-headed manner and seek possible solutions. Quarrels and intimidations will not help, nor trade and political wars.

If the US really wants to solve the trade deficit, it should not always expect the Chinese to buy planes or soybeans. The key is to lower the threshold of technology exports. The US is a high-tech exporter and China is a huge consumer, there is therefore huge space for the two to cooperate.

In addition, the two sides must seek win-win strategy and ward off pursuit of short-term interests.

In recent years, China and the United States have achieved remarkable progress in the cooperation of counter-terrorism, non-proliferation, large-scale infectious diseases control, financial stability, energy development, information security and environmental protection.

Practice has proved that mutual interaction is conducive for both as well as for the world. As exchanges of the two deepen, mutual dependence will go further. Former US Treasury Secretary Jim Baker once said: if the United States and China have conflicts, the whole world would suffer.

In short, both sides should fully develop constructive, cooperative relations from a long-term perspective and strategic height.

An open China that promotes development, cooperation and seeks for national harmony and world peace would not only benefit the country itself but also the United States.

By People's Daily Online