On March 21st, to celebrate the successful cooperation between China and the United States in the field of aviation, the US Ambassador to China Gary Locke specially held a reception at the official residence, Deputy Minister of Transport, CAAC Director Li Jiaxiang, CAAC Deputy Secretary Xia Xinghua, and long-term participation. The relevant person in charge of the US-China civil aviation cooperation between the Chinese and American aviation circles was invited to attend the reception.

In his speech, Li Jiaxiang first thanked Ambassador Locke for his kind invitation. He said that the cooperation in the field of civil aviation between China and the US has always played a very important role in promoting the relations between the two countries and has become an important part of the relations between the two countries. The characteristics of "complementary advantages and mutual benefit and win-win results" between China and the United States are particularly evident in the field of civil aviation.

Li Jiaxiang reviewed the history of civil aviation exchanges between China and the United States. He said that on February 21, 1972, President Nixon made an official visit to China. Shortly thereafter, in September, the Chinese Civil Aviation Corporation ordered 10 707 aircraft from Boeing, which opened up pragmatic cooperation in Sino-U.S. economic and trade fields. In the past 40 years, China’s civil aviation company has introduced 1,151 transportation planes, 70 business jets, and more than 2,800 engines from the United States, plus related equipment purchased from the United States, totaling approximately 140 billion US dollars. Taking last year as an example, China’s total import trade from the United States was US$122.2 billion, of which the value of aviation products such as imported aircraft, engines, and aviation materials reached US$11.3 billion, accounting for 9.2% of the import trade volume. Civil aviation has made important contributions to balancing Sino-US trade.

Li Jiaxiang said that on September 17, 1980, China and the United States signed a civil air transport agreement, and the airline companies of both countries began to operate Sino-US routes. At present, the China-US air transportation market has become one of the largest international air transport markets in China. On average, 26 aircraft travel between the two countries. Civil aviation has played an important role in promoting personnel exchanges and economic and trade exchanges between the two countries.

In particular, he pointed out that over the years, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has maintained good relations of cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Trade Development Agency, the Transportation Security Bureau and other government agencies and related companies. It is worth mentioning that since the establishment of the Sino-U.S. aviation cooperation project in 2004, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency has provided a total of 9.3 million U.S. dollars in grants for the implementation of flight standards, airworthiness certification, airport management, environmental protection, personnel training, and air travel. Cooperation in traffic management and other areas has achieved fruitful results.

Li Jiaxiang emphasized: The United States is the largest civil aviation developed country, and China is the largest civil aviation developing country. The development of the two civil aviation companies is highly complementary and it is in the interests of both parties to further strengthen cooperation.

In his speech, Locke thanked everyone for coming. He said: "VIP guests from the US and China aviation field will join me in witnessing a new bright spot in Sino-U.S. bilateral relations."

Locke said that the aviation cooperation between the United States and China can be traced back to the early 1940s. At that time, members of the U.S. Flying Tigers drove airplanes and sent Chinese allies’ much-needed supplies along the “Hump Route” to Kunming and beyond. Today, the bilateral air partnership between China and the United States has achieved a series of world-renowned achievements. Not only has there been good interaction and cooperation between the government departments of the two countries in all fields of the aviation industry, American aviation companies have also made outstanding contributions to China-America aviation cooperation in aviation transportation, aviation manufacturing, airport technology services, and biofuel innovation technologies. .

Locke also made special mention of the achievements of the "Sino-America Aviation Cooperation Project" promoted by the joint efforts of the government and the industry. He said that the "Sino-US Aviation Cooperation Project" that was launched eight years ago now covers 50 U.S. corporate members and 6 U.S. government agencies. They are involved in flight safety, airport construction, air traffic management, and personnel training. Chinese counterparts worked together to demonstrate the broad prospects for the future development of the aviation industry.

Locke said he is looking forward to the long-term in-depth cooperation between the United States and China Civil Aviation to the future.

It is understood that currently on the China-US air transportation market, China’s five passenger transport companies and seven freight companies operate 69 passenger flights and 76 cargo flights a week; the US’s four passenger companies and seven cargo companies operate 119 a week. Passenger flights and 121 cargo flights.