President Hu Jintao is expected to lay out a blueprint for future China-U.S. relations in the new era with American leaders during his upcoming visit to the United States starting from Tuesday.

This year, which is the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century and marks the 40th anniversary of the rapprochement between the two countries, will see how China-U.S. relations evolve.

Guiding China-U.S. strategic cooperation

Until now, such debate as "Is China a strategic rival or a cooperative partner?" still catches worldwide attention. Hu's visit is sure to offer additional clue to the question.

Hu's visit is widely believed to be committed to further enhancing the strategic mutual trust, the cornerstone for China-U.S. relations, as the tour will guide China-U.S. strategic cooperation, promote communication and understanding and steer the relations toward positive, cooperative and comprehensive development.

However, noises emerge from time to time.

With China's rising clout on international arena in recent years, theories such as "China Threat" repeatedly appeared in the U.S. media and some American politicians even advocated containment of China, in disregard of the fact that China has adhered to peaceful development and offered new opportunities to others rather than posed them any threats.

The hard fact shows that mutual trust is vital to the common development as the two countries differ in political system, ideology and strategic goal.

Promoting mutual trust will strengthen the reserve strength of the China-U.S. relations and contribute to the stability of Asia and the entire world.

Hu's visit will help promote mutual respect for each other's core interests.

Underscoring its ties with Washington, Beijing has done nothing harmful to American sovereignty and its fundamental interests. Accordingly, China has claimed over and over again that issues related to Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang bear on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity and is a major concern for all 1.3 billion Chinese people.

The visit will also help boost a positive, cooperative and comprehensive partnership between China and the United States, the best choice for the two countries.

Currently, China and the United States are cooperating extensively. The two nations have signed more than 30 inter-governmental cooperative agreements and have established more than 60 dialogue mechanisms.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger proposed establishing "permanent consultative institutions" between the two countries.

"If we have a permanent contact, then even (when) there is an occasion of difficulty, it will fit into a continuing dialogue, and I expect this to be a result of this visit," Kissinger said.