US, China should facilitate co-op on combating COVID-19: Chinese ambassador

WASHINGTON - The United States and China have to facilitate bilateral cooperation on combating COVID-19, which is affecting over 180 countries and regions, to save the future of the global community, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said.

"Let's work together to respond to this global crisis, to save people's lives, to save the future of global economy, and to save the future of the global community. This is our paramount task," Cui said in an interview on April 3 with Ian Bremmer at weekly digital and broadcast show Gzero World, which was aired nationally on Saturday by American Public Television.

"This is such a complex and comprehensive relationship. But fortunately at the top level, our two Presidents have maintained good communication between them," said Cui responding to a question on China-U.S. ties.

Noting that "President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump had another phone call" in late March, Cui said "it was (a) very long, very constructive phone call. They agreed that our two countries should really work together."

"This is the time for solidarity and cooperation," said Cui. "Let's concentrate on the positive things. Let's focus on our common interests and mutual needs."

The Chinese envoy listed three things to which the embassy gives priority "at this critical moment" as COVID-19 is ravaging the world.

The first is to facilitate cooperation between the two countries to combat the virus, to contain the pandemic and to save people's lives, whether it is about medical supplies or about technical cooperation between the governmental and research institutions, Cui said.

"We in the embassy are doing our best to facilitate such communication and coordination between us," he said, adding the two country's CDCs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) had another video conference of "a very technical nature" on March 29.

"Second, as agreed by the two Presidents and as agreed by the leaders of G20 at a special summit, we have been really making good efforts to stabilize global market, boost global economic growth, and protect people's jobs and livelihood," Cui said. "This is, I think, one of the priorities for us."

"Based on my own experience here, our two leaders have a very good and effective working relationship between them. Their meetings and their phone calls have been, all of them, constructive and giving us some guidance about the relations," he said.

"So hopefully, everybody would work together with us to implement such agreement between the two presidents, and really focus on the constructive things that we really have to do together," he said.

"Then maybe as important as all these things for me and for the embassy, honestly, we have to make sure that we have a supportive public opinion for cooperation between our two countries. This is maybe as difficult as the previous two, but this is crucial," he said.

Cui added that the embassy has to take care of the overseas Chinese, the students as well as all the Chinese diplomats and their families in the United States.