On December 13, 2012, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in Zhongnanhai, Beijing. Both China and the United States should be innovative and make efforts to accumulate "positive energy" to build a China-U.S. cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit, Xi emphasized. They should also create a new type of bilateral ties between major powers, regardless of difficulties, said Xi.