New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping met with a group of American senators in Beijing on Monday. During the meeting, Jinping said that China-US ties would impact the "destiny of mankind."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer led a six-person delegation to China, as Washington seeks to ease tensions with Beijing, reported news agency AFP.
"How China and the United States get along with each other in the face of a world of change and turmoil will determine the future and destiny of mankind," Xi said as he met with Schumer at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
"I have said many times, including to several presidents, that we have 1,000 reasons to improve China-US relations, but not one reason to ruin them," Xi said, adding that China-US ties are "the most important bilateral relationship in the world," according to AFP.
In response, Schumer told Xi that "our countries, together, will shape this century".
"That is why we must manage our relationship responsibly and respectfully," he asserted.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Wang told the senate delegation that he hoped their visit would help the two sides "manage existing differences more rationally, helping the relationship between the two countries return to the track of healthy development".
Wang further stated that he hoped they would "more accurately understand China" after the trip, which he said comes as the world is in a "turbulent period of change".
"The crisis in Ukraine has not yet subsided, and warfare has reemerged in the Middle East," he said.
"All these various challenges need to be addressed by the international community, and China and the United States should play their due roles," Wang added.
Schumer, in turn, said "a level playing field for American business and workers" was his delegation's "number one goal".
"Holding accountable China-based companies supplying deadly chemicals fuelling the fentanyl crisis in America" was another objective, he told Wang, as was "ensuring China does not support Russia's immoral war against Ukraine".
"Advancing human rights" was an additional priority, Schumer said.