MODERATOR：Let’s go to Jennifer in the green， please.
QUESTION：Thank you very much. Jennifer Chen with Shenzhen Media Group， China. We know during the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s Beijing visit， he commented – which smoothed the path for Xi－Trump meeting – he commented twice about basing U.S.－China relations on non－conflict， non－confrontation， mutual respect， win－win cooperation， receiving great feedback in China. Will President Trump agree to the same principles or expression in a meeting with President Xi？ And yesterday， a senior White House official said U.S. and China have good opportunities in North Korea issues. What was he referring to？ Thank you very much.
MS THORNTON：So you talked about the Secretary’s trip to China， and I think there’s been a lot of media focus on his expressions that he used in his press statement there. What I would say about that – and I was there – is that the Secretary was using his statement during the press avail in Beijing to refer to the key elements that have characterized U.S.－China relations going back 40 years， since the original Nixon visit to China. And what he was talking about in that press avail – and if you look at the transcript， I think you’ll see this pretty clearly – he was talking about the two leaders coming together at this summit coming up， the next couple of days， to set a new course for U.S.－China relations for the next 40 to 50 years. So the elements that he raised in his recitation of those formulations you mentioned were really talking about how we’ve managed the relationship going back， and now he thinks it’s important for the two leaders to come together and discuss how they’re going to set a course for the future. So I would characterize it that way.
MR POTTINGER：And I was going to answer the question on North Korea， that in terms of an area of cooperation， of course we would like to see China working closely with the United States to address the menace emanating from North Korea – their weapons programs， the provocations that we’re seeing every week； missile launches， including one that we just had not too many hours ago. There is an opportunity for that to be an area of cooperation and to grow that. I think it’s in Beijing’s interest. I think that North Korea long ago ceased to be a strategic asset for China. It is now quite clearly a strategic liability， and it is one that is having an impact on the region. It is one that has the potential to destabilize not only the peninsula but really the region as a whole.
|
