China calls for peaceful coexistence and promises pandas on the 45th anniversary of U.S.-China ties
Associated PressBEIJING — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday that the United States and China must insist on peaceful coexistence and transcend their differences like they did when they established diplomatic relations 45 years ago this week. “We must think about how to calibrate the direction of the large ship of China-U.S. relations avoid hidden reefs and dangerous shoals.” Both Wang and David Meale, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy, cited congratulatory letters exchanged by Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday’s anniversary. The giant pandas in Memphis, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., returned to China last year, and some feared that China would stop lending pandas to American zoos because of the tensions between the two countries. But Xi raised hope for California in November when he told an audience in San Francisco that China was ready to continue cooperating with the U.S. on pandas and “do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians.” Wang told Friday’s banquet audience that “preparations are ready for a giant panda return to California within the year.” ___ Associated Press researchers Yu Bing and Wanqing Chen and video producer Caroline Chen contributed.