Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya held talks with visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte Wednesday morning.

"Since you have participated and experienced the normalization of Sino-U.S. ties, your attendance at the celebrating activities is of special importance," Wang said in his opening remarks.

He thanked Negroponte for his contribution to promoting the stable development of Sino-U.S. ties, the strategic economic dialogue as well as the trust and cooperation between the two countries.

Negroponte said he was glad to be in Beijing to mark the anniversary and echoed Wang as saying that he believed the two countries will come along with a smooth development of relations in the future.

The two counterparts will also attend a friendly table tennis game between Chinese and U.S. athletes on Wednesday afternoon to mark the historic "ping pong diplomacy" over 37 years ago.

In 1971, a U.S. table tennis team paid a visit to China after many years of estrangement and antagonism between the two countries, shocking the entire world and also opening the door for China-U.S. people-to-people contacts.

Negroponte, who arrived in Beijing on Tuesday evening, is in the capital to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-U.S. diplomatic relations.

(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2009)