Vice President Hu, thank you very much for your kind and generous remarks. Thank you for welcoming me and my wife, Laura, here.
I see she’s 1)keeping pretty good company with the secretary of state, Colin Powell.
It’s good to see you, Mr. Secretary.
And I see my national security adviser, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, who at one time was the 2)provost of Stanford University, so she’s comfortable on the university campuses such as this.
Thank you for being here, Condi.
I’m so grateful for the hospitality and honored for the reception at one of China’s and the world’s great universities.
The standards and reputation of this university are known around the world, and I know what an achievement it is to be here. So congratulations.
My visit to China comes on an important anniversary, as the vice president mentioned. Thirty years ago this week an American president arrived in China on a trip designed to end decades of 3)estrangement and confront centuries of 4)suspicion. President Richard Nixon showed the world that two vastly different governments could meet on the grounds of common interest in the spirit of mutual respect.
As they left the airport that day, Premier Zhou En-Lai said this to President Nixon: “Your handshake came over the vastest ocean in the world-25 years of no communication.”
During the 30 years since, America and China have exchanged many handshakes of friendship and commerce. And as we have had more contact with each other, the citizens of both countries have gradually learned more about each other. And that’s important.
It was my honor to visit China in 1975. Some of you weren”t even born then. It shows how old I am.
And a lot has changed in your country since then. China has made amazing progress in openness and enterprise and economic freedom. And this progress previews China’s great 5)potential. China has joined the World Trade Organization, and as you 6)live up to its obligations, they inevitably will bring changes to the Chinese legal system. A modern China will have a consistent rule of law to govern commerce and secure the rights of its people.
The new China your generation is building will need the profound wisdom of your traditions. The lure of materialism challenges our society-challenges society in our country-and in many successful countries.
All these changes will lead to a stronger, more confident China, a China that can astonish and enrich the world, a China that your generation will help create.
This is one of the most exciting times in the history of your country, a time when even the grandest hopes seem within your reach. My nation offers you our respect and our friendship.
Six years from now, athletes from America and around the world will come to your country for the Olympic Games, and I’m confident they will find a China that is becoming a daguo, a leading nation, at peace with its people and at peace with the world.
