On September 24, 2019 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended a dinner co-hosted by National Committee on United States (US)-China Relations, US-China Business Council, US Chamber of Commerce and Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and delivered a keynote speech.

Wang Yi said, China and the United States differ from each other in history, culture, social system, development path and national conditions. Disagreements and frictions between us are almost inevitable. What matters most is that we perceive them objectively and handle them properly. Over 2,000 years ago, Chinese sage Confucius observed that "A gentleman seeks harmony without uniformity whereas a petty man does just the opposite", making the case that real harmony is anchored on recognition of and respect for differences. Your great philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that in true friendship, both parties "recognize the deep identity which, beneath their disparities, unites them". The two philosophers, though living millennia apart, spoke to the same truth. The advance of human civilization must not stop, still less go backward. Differences and disparities should not be a chasm preventing people from engaging each other. Rather, they could become an impetus for mutual learning and shared progress.