The Sino-US relationship has maintained a generally positive development momentum over the past three decades, despite occasional divergences and discord between the two countries.

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger was in Beijing earlier this month to commemorate the upcoming 40th anniversary of former US president Richard Nixon's visit to China and the signing of the Shanghai Communique, which as Vice-President Xi Jinping said broke the ice keeping the two countries apart.

The extraordinary strategic view and political wisdom of Chairman Mao, former premier Zhou Enlai, Nixon, and Kissinger and other older-generation leaders opened the door to a cooperative partnership and the development of the world's most important bilateral relationship, and was a testament to their shared sense of responsibility to maintain world peace and promote common prosperity for all.

The vision displayed by these leaders in 1972 has resulted in increasingly frequent top-level visits and people-to-people exchanges, an improving dialogue mechanism, pragmatic and efficient cooperation on many issues of global concern, as well as a more flexible approach to resolving their differences.

The greater and growing understanding of one another is the foundation for the building of harmonious bilateral relations. The contacts between them are now so frequent that there is no longer any unfamiliarity. Cordial relations between the two countries are being built on the relations between the two peoples, who are ready to understand, listen to and know each other. Without this it would be impossible to look at and understand each other objectively and reasonably.

China is the largest developing country, and the US is the largest developed country. But even if the two countries are at different development stages, both of them need to pursue sustainable development. Traveling on the same road in the same direction there is no reason for them to bump into each other. If the US only thinks of containing China and does not allow other countries to develop, it will only harm itself. And China will only cause itself unnecessary trouble if it regards the US as an opponent.

Both countries should discard any lingering Cold War mentality and try and see each other objectively and fairly. The US should allow other countries room to develop and China should stick to its path of peaceful and scientific development.

There is only one Earth and we should control competition so that the door is always open for greater cooperation. Both countries have their own advantages in competition and great advantages from collaboration.

Both peoples should continue to work together to ensure that the Sino-US relationship does not become a "zero-sum game" and that the two countries' cooperation continues to strengthen.

Competition should not produce or aggravate any turbulence or geopolitical conflict, nor be employed to tenaciously defend an outdated Cold War mindset. Instead, both sides should cherish peace and deepen and expand mutual trust in different fields to establish a peaceful relationship that manifests the peaceful trend of the times.

The author is vice-president of the Beijing-based Central Institute of Socialism.

(China Daily 01/31/2012 page8)