Ladies and gentlemen, friends, welcome!

Two thousand, five hundred years ago, Zuo Qiuming of the Spring and Autumn period in his volume Zuo Zhuan wisely stressed to his readers the crucial importance of reconciliation.

As we welcome our closest Chinese friends to join with us today in celebrating the 223^rd anniversary of the independence of the United States of America, Zuo's words echo in our minds.

Minister, honored Chinese guests, despite hard work on both sides over many years, our bilateral friendship again faces challenges.

There is no need for me today to dwell on the tragedy which happened last month in a distant place, but we all know that that event still sharply influences our bilateral dialogue and casts a shadow over every exchange between us.

Such an event is not easily forgotten, by either party. China continues to mourn its dead and wounded. America struggles to come to terms with how, in our effort to save thousands of Kosovar Albanians, we might have mistakenly attacked a friendly country's embassy and killed three innocent people.

Friends, even if Americans know that the attack was a mistake, we also clearly understand that the costs were real, both in terms of lives shattered and damage to our bilateral relationship.

We Americans and Chinese gathered here today are, in many ways, the first team of U.S.-Chinese relations. In both good times and bad, it is our common duty to use our utmost imagination and creativity to promote bilateral friendship.

Now is a challenging time. Nonetheless, as Ambassador Sasser said to China's highest leaders this week during his farewell calls, the fundamental structure of the bilateral bridges which we together erected over the last few years remains intact.

Perhaps our greatest challenge now is simple but vital: making the decision that we shall be reconciled. Failure to do so threatens to cast the relationship adrift in a fog of mistrust, anger, and confusion. It leaves our bilateral ties vulnerable to the slightest disagreement or smallest incident.

I hope you will agree that such an outcome is intolerable and, quite frankly, dangerous. In fact, there truly exists only one way forward for our two countries: to begin advancing the broader relationship, even as we continue to work to resolve the existing problems. To forgive, even if we do not forget. To increase trust, reduce trouble, develop cooperation, and avoid confrontation.

To do this, we must first and foremost be united in a common spirit of reconciliation: as friends, as colleagues, as patriots.

Therefore, as we today celebrate the independence of the United States of America, I invite you to join me in a toast to the spirit of reconciliation, to our joint efforts to overcome the barriers to bilateral amity, and to the future of Sino-U.S. relations.

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