In a momentous meeting on Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining dialogue, enhancing cooperation and avoiding conflict.

In recent years, relations between China and the United States have been through ups and downs. In Washington, the widespread zero-sum mentality against China has turned into policies to thwart the Asian country’s development.

"There is a bipartisan consensus (in Washington) that strategic competition with China must continue, even if there is little agreement on America's ultimate goal for this strategy," Yilong Zhang, associate research fellow and director of the trade and technology program at the Institute for China-US Studies, said in a written statement to Xinhua.

From tariffs to restrictions on semiconductor technology, these measures have not only weakened bilateral relations but have reverberated across global supply chains.

At the same time, China and the United States hold divergent worldviews. China has championed a vision of a more equitable, sustainable, and inclusive global society, while Washington has sought to maintain its long-standing hegemonic status.

Despite these deep differences, Saturday's high-level engagement underscored a shared understanding: With the stakes so high, neither side can afford to risk confrontation.

Xi said during the meeting that the two sides should continue to explore the right path to achieve good consensus between the two major countries and achieve long-term and peaceful coexistence on this planet.

"The Thucydides Trap is not a historical inevitability. A new Cold War should not be fought and cannot be won," the Chinese president said during the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the 31st Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Lima, Peru.

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in Lima, Peru, Nov. 16, 2024. (Xinhua)

In recent years, some politicians, academics, and media outlets in the United States have clung to a zero-sum mentality, warning of the so-called "Thucydides Trap" -- the idea that an emerging state inevitably raises concerns in an established state, leading to conflict or war.

However, China has consistently rejected this premise. In a globalized world where nations are deeply interconnected and their interests are intricately intertwined, China believes that the old models of power politics and survival of the fittest must yield to a more cooperative vision that seeks to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

“The United States can save itself the high costs of fighting China on key issues by taking a win-win approach,” said Dennis Simon, a veteran expert on U.S.-China relations and former executive vice chancellor at Duke Kunshan University.

“Mutual respect, increased sensitivity to multiculturalism, and enhanced reciprocity can lead to win-win outcomes,” Simon added.

At the meeting on Saturday, Xi called on the US side to have a correct strategic conception of China and treat each other as equals.

Xi stressed that China's goal of establishing stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relations has not changed, adding that its commitment to mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation as principles in handling China-US relations has not changed.

For his part, Biden stressed that the relationship between the United States and China is the most important bilateral relationship in the world.

Biden said the United States does not seek a new Cold War, does not seek to change China's regime, does not seek to direct its alliances against China, does not support "Taiwan independence," has no intention of entering into conflict with China, and does not view its Taiwan policy as a means of competing with China.

Over the past four years, the two presidents have jointly put China-US dialogue and cooperation back on track. More than 20 communication mechanisms have been resumed or established, and positive achievements have been made in such areas as diplomacy, security, economy and trade, finance and finance, military, anti-drug and law enforcement, agriculture, climate change, and people-to-people exchanges.

"The urgent need now is to maintain, strengthen and consolidate communication between the two countries," Zhang said.

"As the political dust settles from this election cycle, people-to-people exchanges will be as important as diplomatic exchanges," he added, referring to the just-ended US presidential election, in which former US President Donald Trump won the race.

"The next generation must continue to engage with each other, not only to reduce misunderstandings but also to deepen the pool of expertise on China affairs within the United States," he added.

During his first term, the Trump administration embraced an “America First” doctrine that saw sweeping tariffs imposed on U.S. trading partners. Following his victory, concerns about increased protectionism have once again spread globally.

“We hope that China will continue to defend the message of keeping the global trading system open,” said Carlos Aquino, director of the Center for Asian Studies at the National University of San Marcos in Peru.

"It is important for President Xi to continue to uphold the message of (protecting) a free and open trading system," he added.