The Chinese people have always admired the American people for their pragmatic attitude and creative spirit. My visit to IBM, AT&T and the Bell Laboratory yesterday gave me some first-hand knowledge of the latest successes in modern science and technology. Today's rapid development in science and technology is bringing about increasingly greater impact[s] on global political and economic patterns and on people's social life. If we persist in our reform, we will be able to turn our ideals into reality. In our cause to further open up and achieve modernization, we have spared no efforts in learning from all the fine cultural achievements of the American people.

Stability, Emerging Markets

Friendship and cooperation between our two peoples are of great importance to the world. The United States is the most developed country, and China the largest developing country. China is a country with 1.2 billion people. Its stability and rapid development in of vital importance to the stability and development in Asia-Pacific and the world at large. China holds a huge market and great demand for development, and the United States holds advanced science and technology, as well as enormous material force. The economies of the two countries are therefore highly complementary with each other. China's potential market, once combined with foreign advanced technology and capital, will produce many opportunities and great vigor for development. China and the United States share broad common interests and shoulder common responsibility on many important questions which are crucial to human survival and development, such as maintaining world peace and security, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, protecting the environment for human survival and combating the international crimes. All these provide an important basis for further developing China-U.S. friendly relations and cooperation. We should take a firm hold of the overall interests of China-U.S. relations and settle our differences properly, so as to reach the goal of promoting mutual understanding, broadening common ground, developing global cooperation and building a future together.

During my current visit to the United States, I had a deep exchange of views and reached broad agreement with President Clinton on the future development of China-U.S. relations. We both agree that with a view to promoting the lofty cause of world peace and development, China and the United States should strengthen cooperation and work hard to build a constructive strategic partnership oriented towards the 21st century. This will mark a new stage of development in the China-U.S. relations.

Harvard's China Studies

Harvard University has all along placed importance on China studies. When I come here, I remember when I was minister of electronic industrial ministry. Fourteen years ago, I was here [for the] first time. The late Professor [John King] Fairbank ['29] was a well-known scholar from Harvard. He devoted all his life to the study of Chinese history and culture. In order to promote the study of China's past and present, I will present Harvard with a set of newly published Twenty-Four Histories With Mao Zedong's Comments. Twenty-Four Histories are important classic works on China's history of several thousand years. In his lifetime, Mao Zedong made numerous comments and annotations on the Twenty-Four Histories, thus leaving us with a rich heritage of philosophy in understanding and in drawing useful lessons from China's history.

I am glad to learn that you, Mr.President, will come to China next year. I look forward to meeting you again in Beijing--or Shanghai.

I highly appreciate the motto on the gates of your university. It reads, "Enter to grow in wisdom" and "Depart to serve better thy country and thy kind." Young people in China have also a motto; that is: "Keep the motherland in heart and serve the people with heart and soul." I hope that in the cause of building our own countries and promoting world peace and development, younger generations of China and the United States will understand each other better, learn from each other, enhance the friendship and strive for a better future.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Tiananmen Square

[Question No. 1: Submitted by the Joint Committee for Protesting Jiang Zemin's visit to Harvard]

Q: Jiang Zemin asked the West not to engage in confrontation but dialogue. However, why does he refuse dialogue with his own people? Why did the Chinese government order tanks in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 and confront the Chinese people?

A: In China there are various channels for us to learn about people's views. For instance, when I was the mayor of Shanghai, I [had] frequent contact with the people's deputies there, and after I went to work with the Party's Central Committee, I have been to almost all [of] the 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions of China.

China is a large country, with different levels of development in different parts of the country, and therefore, in some places in China I've been there even more than three times. I've been to many grassroots units in China's countryside, in the cities, and in the factories and have had extensive contacts with people from different walks of life, and therefore, the people are very satisfied with achievements we have scored under the reform and opening-up program of China, and the policy of the government is to serve the people. Therefore, we have to reflect the people's requests and do everything that will meet the people's requests. And also, as a result of our effort along that line, we have enjoyed the support from our people. It goes without saying that, naturally, we may have shortcomings and even make some mistakes in our work. However, we have been working on a constant basis to further improve our work."

The 14th Dalai Lama