Former EIR White House correspondent Bill Jones was interviewed on a live CGTN news program on September 21 and was questioned about President Xi’s upcoming meeting with President Trump. The focus of the program was on the personal relationship between the two leaders. Jones said that expanding this relationship was extremely crucial in creating a different climate in the relations between the two countries. While there is a great deal of anti-China bias in the U.S. mass media and in the political class generally, he explained, that is not the case with the general population, with recent polls showing that most Americans would want the United States to work together with China rather than at odds with it. But the population is also influenced by the media narratives on China. The exchanges – people going to China and Chinese people coming to America – would give both sides a true picture of the other.

Jones also noted the important role that Chinese students have had as a bulwark of our educational system, which has been harmed by the restrictions. CGTN host Asieh Namdar asked Jones what he thought the biggest obstacle was in creating a better relationship. Jones said it was the belief that China wants to be what the United States attempts to be—the country that calls the shots, the great hegemon. Jones said there was nothing in Chinese pronouncements, in their diplomatic relations , or in their concrete actions that indicates any such thing. In fact, China sees the United States as the most important country with whom it would like to have a good working relationship. “And China often bends over backwards to try to accomplish that,” Jones said . “They only ask that it be on the basis of mutual respect—and they don’t always get that from the U.S.”