All humans have the right to pursue happiness and should be open and tolerant with each other while dreaming of a better future and striving for win-win results in pursuit of their dreams.

The Chinese dream and the beautiful dreams of other peoples grow out of different histories and have their roots in different cultures, but they all reflect people's desire to work toward their vision of a better life. China's rapid economic and social development over the past decades after reform and opening-up boosted people's confidence to realize national prosperity and rejuvenation. President Xi Jinping stressed that the Chinese dream in the final analysis is the people's dream and people's longing for a good life is what we are fighting for.

The United States' development history since winning independence convinced Americans that they could live a better life if they tenaciously struggled. The Chinese dream and the beautiful dreams of other peoples contain the positive forces inspiring people all over the world to pursue happiness.

The Chinese dream and the American dream have different connotations because of the different national conditions that gave birth to them, but they are highly complementary to each other and there is broad space for cooperation. China and the US, as the world's largest developing country and the largest developed country, have a stake in the other's economic prospect. In today's highly interdependent global economy, it is said that when the US sneezes, the world catches a cold. Similarly, any fluctuation in the Chinese market now also has tremendous impact on the world.

Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, China has made great contributions to the economic recovery of others, including the US.

An article in The Financial Time says that during the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations the US' trick to exclude China, whose currency has appreciated 40 percent against the dollar in eight years, but include Japan, whose currency has fallen 25 percent in less than eight months, will not satisfy American manufactures.

Looking to the future, China's continued development means releasing the huge potential of domestic demand and creating an ever-expanding domestic market. The report "US-China Economic Relations over the Next 10 Years" released by the China-US Exchange Foundation predicts that China will become the world's largest importer by 2022, with its imports from the US expected to surpass $530 billion. By then the value of China's exports to the US is expected to grow to $805 billion.

To realize their dreams, people in China and the US, based on the two sides of the Pacific, need to maintain the good momentum of peace, development and cooperation that has been built in the Asia-Pacific region. As key stakeholders in the world economy and the international system, China and the US will benefit from peaceful coexistence and lose from conflict. A head-on clash between the two powers would have great consequences for the whole world as a whole.

China and the US should work together, enhance strategic mutual trust, expand common interests and jointly explore ways to establish a new type of great power relations, creating a win-win cooperation situation in the Asia-Pacific and making due contribution to lasting peace and the common development of the Asia-Pacific region.

China will adhere to the path of peaceful development and other powers should also adhere to the path of peaceful development. China advocates awareness of a "human community, shared destiny" and insists on promoting the spirit of equality and mutual trust, tolerance and mutual learning, cooperation and mutual benefits. Henry Kissinger put forward the concept of a "Pacific Community", suggesting the US, China and other countries in the region all participate in regional peace and development initiatives.

The Chinese dream and the American dream are not conflicting, nor mutually exclusive. Both sides can seek common ground while reserving differences. Peaceful development and win-win cooperation is the direction of the Chinese people in pursuit of their dream, which is in line with the common interests and desire of the peoples of the world. China and the US, indeed all countries, should make efforts to move in this direction for the sake of lasting peace and common prosperity in pursuit of their dreams.

The author is a Bejing-based scholar of international relations.

(China Daily USA 08/06/2013 page11)