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China's U.S. envoy says 'dangerous to advocate confrontation'

BEIJING - It is dangerous to advocate confrontation in relations between the United States and China, and wishful thinking to believe China will change the nature of its politics, China's ambassador in Washington was quoted as saying by state media on Thursday.
While US President Donald Trump made a largely successful and controversy-free visit to China late last year, Trump has repeatedly threatened to get tough on what he see as unfair Chinese trade practices, and has called on China to do more to rein in its nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea.
On Tuesday, Dan Coats, the director of US national intelligence, warned that Chinese cyber espionage and cyber attack capabilities would continue to support China's national security and economic priorities.
Speaking at an embassy reception for the Lunar New Year, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said while the two countries did have their differences, what was more important was that their common interests continued to grow.
Sino-US ties "should be characterised by overall cooperation", Cui was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
"Friendly competition, if competition is necessary, and no confrontation," he added.