Premier handles crunch time deftly

Premier Li Keqiang greets former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger on Tuesday at a banquet hosted by the Economic Club of New York at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Huang Jingwen/Xinhua

Have you ever wondered how Premier Li Keqiang might answer a sensitive question such as "What is your opinion on the US presidential candidates?" or how he would explain persistent misconceptions between the world's two largest economies?

Crunch time came on Tuesday night when a banquet was given in his honor by the Economic Club of New York at the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

The first sensitive question was posed to Li by Susie Gharib, a member of the Economic Club.

"I'm sure you've heard that candidates who are running for president here in the States have very harsh words about the loss of American jobs and unfair global trade agreements," said the senior special correspondent for Fortune.

"What would you say to the presidential candidates in terms of advice?" she asked.

With the US Democratic and Republican nominees moving closer to the November election, it is only natural that people in the world's largest economy would like to know how a person in the second-largest economy, and one with as much clout as the premier, would think about the presidential election.

To applause from the audience, the premier laughed. "Well, before I came to New York, my friend said I was not coming at a right time," Li said.

"It's not a right time," he repeated, in English.

"The US election, about to reach a white-heat point, is the US's internal affair, and things for me to say about this topic are very limited," the premier conceded.

He recalled that during his visit to the headquarters for both parties' presidential campaigns in the 1980s, he was asked whether he liked any of the candidates. He said he replied that no matter who was elected, he was confident that China-US relations would grow.

"But now you've put me on such a podium, and considering my current capacity, I can only repeat what I said years ago. That is, no matter who gets elected in the US presidential election, I believe China-US relations will continue to grow steadily and in a positive direction."