Liu Jianchao, the head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, was in the U.S. for meetings with U.S. counterparts. The International Department is responsible for contacts with parties and institutions in foreign countries. On Jan. 10, Liu addressed the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York and responded to questions from the audience. He noted that the central task of the Chinese government and people is to accomplish the modernization drive. He said that China’s development was still unbalanced and would place more emphasis on quality driven by technological progress.
Liu referred to the science and technology agreement signed by Deng Xiaoping and President Jimmy Carter in 1979. China stands ready to implement the San Francisco agreement on science and technology, he said. The 1979 agreement has come under fire from the anti-China crowd, who want to abolish it, but it was renewed by the Biden Administration for only six months, rather than five years, with the intention to amend the treaty with consideration to alleged “security concerns.”
Liu said that development can only occur in a secure environment, that the high-standard opening-up policy has transformed China, and that China would continue to keep the door open and create a law-based environment. He expressed the hope that the U.S. would also keep the door open.
The “strategic goal” for China is to deliver a better life for its 1.4 billion people, he told the CFR audience. He referred to the recent major meeting on China’s foreign policy, saying that its purpose was to create a more favorable environment for China’s development and for the creation of a community of a shared future for mankind. On the critical Taiwan issue, he said the U.S. and China should learn to manage differences and know each other’s “red lines.” He expressed his hope that the U.S. would live up to the commitments made by the U.S. at the San Francisco summit.
