Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the United States, chats with Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the Blackstone Group, during the annual National Committee on US-China Relations Gala Dinner on Wednesday evening in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel in New York. Hong Xiao / For China Daily

China and the United States should have a shared global vision when addressing the world’s problems, China’s ambassador to the US told the audience at the National Committee on US-China Relations Gala Dinner on Wednesday.

“The relationship is not about dominance but about partnership, is not about zero-sum rivalry but about win-win cooperation,” Ambassdor Cui Tiankai said to applause at The Plaza Hotel in New York. “This is no longer a world where one country can single-handedly make all the international rules. Rather, this is a world where all countries have to work together.”

Cui said the two countries need to have a similar mindset on bilateral, regional and global issues. He listed 22 areas in which the US and China and the rest of the world must work together.

“From trade to mutual investment, from microeconomic-policy coordination to global economic governance, from clean energy to infrastructure, from agriculture to food safety, from science to innovation, from climate change to environmental protection, from disease control to disaster prevention, from military-to-military exchanges to people-to-people contact, from counterterrorism to nonproliferation, from the Iran nuclear issue to the Korean nuclear issue, from new construction in Afghanistan to cooperation for development in Africa countries,” he said.

“China and the United States should be partners in cooperation, not rivals in confrontation.”

After reading President Xi Jinping’s letter from Beijing congratulating the attendees, Cui gave a speech emphasizing that the two countries should cooperate on maintaining the momentum of Xi’s US state visit in September.

Cui said both countries should work to enhance mutual trust and confidence.

“(NCUSCR president) Steve (Orlins) said some people here like to blame China for American problems. Well, if that makes them feel better, we are ready to take it as friends,” Cui said to laughter.

“Still, neither country should easily challenge the strategic intention of the other just because of some specific issues,” he said, adding that countries should solve their difference constructively and pragmatically.

Using maritime security as an example, Cui said: “Our two countries should work together to promote the freedom of navigation, while bearing in mind freedom of navigation grants no one the liberty of provocation.”

He said that China and the US are very different in many ways and will encounter differences time to time, but “our common interests far outweigh any difference we might have”.

Cui said the two countries should find creative ways to turn differences into opportunities and “never allow any possible differences to escalate into clashes and confrontation”.

When Xi met US National Security Advisor Susan Rice in Beijing in September 2014, Xi compared the US-China relationship to a mansion that had been built brick by brick.

“I hope the mansion of the Sino-US relationship could be built as high as possible in the future,” Cui told Chinese media after his speech.

Hong Xiao in New York contributed to this story.

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com