[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 37 (Monday, September 19, 2005)]
[Pages 1393-1394]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to Discussions With President Hu Jintao of China in New 
York City

September 13, 2005

    President Bush. I'm pleased to welcome President Hu back to the 
United States. I've been looking forward to this meeting. We've got a 
lot to discuss. We will, of course, discuss areas of interest, like 
economic matters. We will discuss North Korea and Iran. I look forward 
to a discussion about making sure we work together to deal with a 
potential pandemic in the avian flu.
    We'll talk about--I will bring up human rights. Most importantly, I 
view this visit as an opportunity to continue a dialog in dealing with a 
very important relationship with the United States and the world.
    So I welcome you, Mr. President.
    President Hu. I am very pleased to have this opportunity to meet 
with President Bush in New York. To begin with, I'd like to extend, on 
behalf of the Chinese Government and the Chinese people, our deepest 
sympathy to the American Government and people for the human loss and 
property loss inflicted by Hurricane Katrina in the Southern American 
States. May the American people overcome the disaster and rebuild their 
beautiful homes at an early date.
    As things stand now, the China-U.S. relationship, on the whole, has 
been developing quite well. The two sides have stayed in close touch and 
communication, and the two sides have also enjoyed effective 
coordination and cooperation in a wide range of important areas and on a 
number of important issues, including counterterrorism, 
nonproliferation, affairs related to the United Nations, Asia-Pacific 
affairs, as well as boosting global and regional economic growth.
    Facts have proven that a sound and steadily growing China-U.S. 
relationship not only serves the interests of our two peoples but also 
contributes to peace, stability, and development in the world. Our 
economic relationship and trade is not only an important component of 
our bilateral relationship as a whole but also represents a major 
driving force behind the furtherance of this relationship.
    We need to see the fact that the mutually beneficially and win-win 
cooperation is the mainstream of our relationship. At the same time, 
there's no denial that as our bilateral trade develops so fast and to 
such a large scale, it is inevitable that we may have some frictions.
    What I would like to express here is that China does not pursue a 
huge trade surplus in its trade with the United States. And we are 
willing to work with the United States to take effective measures to 
increase China's import from the United States and work hard to 
gradually address the trade imbalances in the two-way trade in the 
further expansion of our trading ties and economic cooperation.
    At the same time, China will continue to step up its efforts to 
protect intellectual properties and will certainly enhance our efforts 
in fighting all kinds of violations in this regard. And we're going to 
protect the legitimate rights and interests of all international 
intellectual property rights owners, including those in the United 
States.
    The proper handling of the Taiwan question holds the key to the 
sound and steady growth of the China-U.S. relationship. President Bush 
has, on various occasions, stated his commitment to the ``one China'' 
policy, the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques, and opposition to so-
called Taiwan independence, which I highly appreciate. I hope that the 
United States will join the Chinese side in safeguarding peace and 
stability across the Taiwan Straits and opposing so-called Taiwan 
independence.
    We have always stood for a nuclear-weapon free Korean Peninsula, 
stood for a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue through dialog, and 
stood for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast 
Asia as

[[Page 1394]]

a whole. We stand ready to step up our communication and cooperation 
with the United States so that we can facilitate fresh progress in the 
second session of the fourth round of the six-party talks.
    In short, I stand ready to work together with President Bush to 
comprehensively move forward the constructive and cooperative 
relationship between our two countries.
    I'm sorry for taking too much of your time. [Laughter]
    President Bush. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 5:32 p.m. in Room 35H at the Waldorf-
Astoria. President Hu spoke in Chinese, and his remarks were translated 
by an interpreter. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of these remarks.