Photo: IC

The new round of high-level China-US trade talks will be held in Washington on Thursday and Friday. The US side made positive statements not long ago, yet it also exerted new pressure on China by blacklisting 28 Chinese entities and imposing visa restrictions on Chinese officials related to Xinjiang.

The trade talks will be tough and the result highly uncertain. It is said that the Chinese delegation will leave the US on Friday night (US time) after completing the scheduled agenda. Chinese society needs to see this round of trade talks calmly regardless of the result.

Further US tariffs on Chinese products are due to take effect on October 15. But it is unnecessary for Chinese to see this date as a Sword of Damocles. The China-US trade war has lasted for over one-and-a-half years. Any new conflict will be significant, yet the impact will be limited. 

Alternate trade war and trade talks may become a new normal in China-US trade relations. We need to strive for the best result in each round of trade talks, but we should also safeguard our core interests without fear of more twists in the trade talks. We need to find a balance between contradictory and complex dynamics, possibilities and choices. For a country like China, no result will really intimidate us. The internal dynamic, not external views, has provided the biggest driving force of China's development. We always stress the importance of doing our own things well. It is how we truly think, and is not a propaganda slogan. 

Despite the trade war, the Beijing Daxing International Airport has been put into operation and China's high-speed railway, expressway and urban rail transit are extending their mileage. No matter we engage in trade war or trade talks, infrastructure construction in China will continue and efforts to improve our life won't cease. US pressure will spur scientific research. As China's economy grows stronger, how can the economic level go downhill? 

Frankly, when the trade war will end is not up to China. But whether the country can continue developing and improving depends on China itself. The nearly 20-month-long trade war has made this clearer. 

China-US relations are certainly not the same as US-Soviet Union ones. The Cold War will never return. But China-US relationship cannot go back to where it was a few years ago either. Some in the US have repeatedly stirred conflicts with China. Controlling these conflicts is of the same importance to Washington. Neither the US nor China knows how to get along with each other in the future. It might be the fundamental cause of why China-US trade talks are so difficult to reach a deal.

China and the US may need to "cross the river by feeling the stones." Chinese people should calm down and be patient. Many things have to be learned, given the complexity of China-US ties. We should neither pin our hopes on a few breakthroughs nor concern ourselves with possible unbearable changes. 

The world is changing. We need to gather strength to deal with potential threats, and stay kind to make it possible to eliminate conflict. As a big power, China should be confident to move forward.