'Together, we can accomplish a lot'
By Ma Chenguang (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-10 05:48

US President George W. Bush has said his upcoming trip to China would give him a chance to get to know the leadership better.

"President Hu (Jintao) is a person who I enjoy visiting with. He's smart And the more you get to know a person, the better, the easier it is to make good policy," said Bush.

US President George W. Bush has said his upcoming trip to China would give him a chance to get to know the leadership better. [China Daily]

And his message to China and the Chinese people was: "We want to have good relations with you."

In an exclusive interview with Hong Kong's Phoenix Television in Washington, which was telecast yesterday, Bush stressed that the Sino-US relationship is "important" and "good," and described China as a "big, powerful nation."

The US president reiterated that "it's in our interest that we share ideas and work together."

He was speaking on the eve of his third official visit to China on November 19. Bush first came to the country on a personal visit in 1975; and to Shanghai in 2001 and Beijing in 2002 after he was elected president.

"The people of China must understand that when the United States and China work together, we can accomplish a lot," he said, adding that "there is a lot of good that we're doing together."

Bush touched on a wide range of bilateral and global issues he is likely to discuss with President Hu.

Working together

"There's a lot of areas where we may not have full agreement, but, nevertheless, are able to discuss our disagreements in a very cordial way," he said.

Besides issues such as free trade, the value of the Chinese currency, intellectual property rights and the war on terror, the Chinese and US leaders have "a fantastic opportunity" to work together for a nuclear weapons-free Korean Peninsula, he said.

This "will lay a foundation for peace in the region and the hemisphere."