WASHINGTON: Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai warned that some people in the United States are trying to place a ‘glass curtain’ between the two countries. Cui made the remarks at the panel discussion “Forty Years of US-China Relations” hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a policy research organization based in Washington, D.C. There are some people in the United States who are trying to place a “glass curtain” between the two nations, so as to impede bilateral exchanges in economy, science and technology, and people-to-people engagements, and even stoke US suspicion against exchange of students and research fellows from China, said the Chinese ambassador. China hopes these ominous trends would not be recognized by US mainstream society, said Cui, who also called on the two sides to enhance dialogue to eliminate the “deficit of mutual understanding.” Beijing and Washington, after having come together 40 years ago united by common strategic interests, have seen the expansion of cooperation and common interests in bilateral, regional and global issues, the ambassador said. Their wide-ranging common interests have stimulated bilateral relations in the past 40 years and will serve as an important foundation of their future ties, he said. China has no desire to contend for global dominance with the United States; rather, it wishes to work with the US side for a new type of relations featuring non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, he said. The event gathered some 200 participants from politics, business, academia and media. The ambassador said that the trade imbalance between China and the United States cannot and will not last in the long run. China and the United States will mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations next year. Since the economies of China and the United States are very interdependent, China sincerely hopes that the US economy will continue to prosper, likewise, the United States has benefited from the development of the Chinese economy in the past four decades, Cui said. As trade grows increasingly important in bilateral relations, Cui called for concerted efforts from China and the United States to find solutions to short-term problems first and explore way-outs to long-term and structural problems at the same time. Published in Daily Times, May 14th 2018.