I think that is the real question is,
is there sufficient political will?
Is there sufficient good intention
to prevent conflicts?
If people have such goodwill and if people act in good faith,
they could always find effective ways of communication.
I don't think that we need more specific channels.
I think what is lacking is
sufficient goodwill and good faith.
You see, I've been present at almost all the meetings
between my president and the US, three different US presidents,
and our position has been very consistent
in President Xi Jinping's words.
We want to base our relations with the United States on the principles
of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.
He proposed the same ideas to President Obama,
to President Trump, and to President Biden.
And we are still waiting for
a positive and constructive response.
It has to be two-way traffic.
For instance, last November, the two presidents
met in Bali on the occasion of the G20 in Indonesia.
It was a good meeting.
They had a very substantive
and long discussion and they agreed on a number of things.
But the problem is that
the United States
does not always implement
the promises they make.
So in other words,
very often they hurt their own credibility.
There is no sufficient good faith.
So how can you ask people to continue such dialogue
when a lot of things are said but never done?
That's a real problem.
You see, they made very good statements
as a meeting between the presidents and other levels.
They made promises on
stabilising the relations
on the Taiwan question, a number of other things.
Then the next day,
they upgrade their official ties with Taiwan, they send new arms to Taiwan.
You see, how can you have confidence?
What they are saying to you
won’t be what they are going to do.
Some people are talking about our ships, our planes are getting too close
to their ships and their planes.
But the real question is, why are they coming all the way
across the ocean to our doorsteps?
They are getting too close to our territories,
to our territorial waters before anything else.
This is not a good way of showing respect to others.
It is certainly a disrespect
of other countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity.
And to be more specific,
they always prefer unilateral sanctions,
including their sanctions against our defense minister.
Maybe we should have more direct flights between China and the United States.
There are too few of them.
Of course, Covid-19 was a problem, but now it's almost over.
We have other obstacles, and the flight tickets
are very expensive, but so many people want to travel.
So at least we could have more flights.
This is very specific.
This is very concrete.
This is for mutual benefit.
And I think this should be easy to do.
Actually, many American students have done very well
are still doing very well in China.
And we would encourage and welcome
even big numbers of them.
And, of course, we have more Chinese students in America.
But based on my own personal experience in Washington, D.C.,
when I was the ambassador there, how to handle the visa?
Well, every government has a sovereign right to decide
whether to issue visas to others or not.
There is no question about that.
But I have
had a number of cases when I was in Washington, D.C.,
that Chinese students were granted visas by the US embassy
or consulate in China.
Still, they were denied entry at the US port.
When they landed in San Francisco or Los Angeles or whatever US city,
they were still denied and they were turned back
for whatever reason, for no good reason at all.
So I think we have to address this
kind of political obstacles
to students,
and their ongoing restrictions
on Chinese students who want to study what people call STEM,
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
This is a kind of discrimination.
I don't know what or if they are going to do anything about that.