Dialogue only way to build consensus and get relations back on right track

The speech State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered at the opening of the Lanting Forum on Sino-US relations on Monday should be taken as the latest summary of Beijing's views on bilateral relations and an overture for US policymakers to tear down the "walls of misperceptions".

Over one month has passed since the Joe Biden administration took office, but the impression lingers that the two countries have still been talking at rather than with one another.

Yet although the phone call between the top diplomats of the two countries earlier this month is viewed as reaffirming the rivalry between the two countries, the frankness, depth and scope of their conversation should have driven home the message that both sides want to see improvement in their relations, and they are making joint efforts in that direction, even if the pace seems glacial.