Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and a retired four-star general in the United States Army, says he agrees with the view that China and the U.S. can create a new pattern of power politics to avoid rivalry.
He made this comment in Washington DC ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's scheduled visit to the United States this month.
"It has always been complex. There are many areas in which we have great cooperation such as we've seen recently on the Iran nuclear agreement where the United States worked with China to get that agreement along with Russia and the European Nations. We also have seen important agreement recently on climate change with China and the United States coming into alignment on the need to do something about it."
He points out, even though there are occasional disagreements with respect to trade, the trading relationship between the two countries has been significant and enormously beneficial to both sides.
With regards to the "rebalance to Asia" or "pivot to Asia" policy initiated by President Obama in 2011, general Powell said he disapproved the use of the word "containment" as the United States can't contain China nor should the United States think it can contain China.
"I think it's quite possible for our two nations and the other nations in the region, all of us, have to come together and understand that the region is best served by peace and by stability and by open dialogue."
With China having become the second largest economy in the world, Powell says the two sides should make their best diplomatic efforts to solve differences.
Having visited China many times in recent decades, Powell says he was deeply impressed with the enormous changes that have taken place in China over the years.
"I have seen colors explode. I have seen the entrepreneurial spirit that was always within Chinese spirit, within the Chinese soul, explode to create that kind of economic miracle that we have seen in the last 40 years."
As the world's two largest economies, the U.S. and China are increasingly economically interdependent.
Trade volume of the two countries hit 550 billion U.S. dollars last year and the combined economies account for about 40 percent of recent global GDP growth.
For CRI, I'm Min Rui.
