By Stephen La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- According to Vice President Dick Cheney, it is "essential" for U.S. and Chinese officials to "maintain contact at senior levels."
That's what the Vice President wrote in a letter to his Chinese counterpart inviting him to visit the United States, according to a senior administration official who briefed foreign journalists April 30 in Washington at the State Department's Foreign Press Center. Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao was beginning a trip to the United States that day with meetings with leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate.
Cheney, in writing to his counterpart, had said it would "serve the interests of our countries and reflect the importance of the U.S.-China relationship if you could visit the United States" in 2002.
The visit, Cheney added, would "contribute to the maintenance of positive momentum in our bilateral relations and would give us a chance to explore means of deepening our ties in the future."
"I think the events of September 11th reminded the people of China and the people of the United States that we share many common interests," the senior administration official told reporters.
The awareness of a common interest in confronting international terrorism "has resulted in very good cooperation between our two countries in the war against terrorism -- cooperation that our president has welcomed," the official said.
"President Bush seeks, as he has told the Chinese leadership, a candid, constructive and cooperative relationship with China," the official added. "That is the context in which this visit is occurring."
The senior administration official said the United States and the People's Republic of China do not agree on every issue.
"Differences will arise," the official said. "That's why it's important that we continue to talk, that we continue to meet at the highest level to exchange views, to build on points of convergence and to try to diminish the points of divergence."
The official said the United States and the Chinese government consult on the situation on the Korean peninsula.
"I think we share common interests on the Korean peninsula," the official said. "We want a stable Korean peninsula -- both of us. Instability there is dangerous to both of our interests."


plz pray,
Sardarzada

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God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death under our knife....