SAN FRANCISCO - Countries around the world are once again hopeful about the sound development of China-US relations in the new year as the two leading economies have made fresh progress in resolving their trade frictions, a Chinese diplomat said here Friday.

In a speech celebrating the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan 25, Chinese Consul General in San Francisco Wang Donghua told an audience of over 700 people that the year 2020 will be a key year in the development of China-US relations.

"Both the Chinese and American people, as well as other countries in the world, are holding new hopes for the China-US relations in the new year," Wang said.

He noted that China is willing to work with the United States to implement the phase-one economic and trade agreement signed this week so that their economic and trade cooperation can return to normal as soon as possible.

"We urge the United States to take a correct, objective approach to China and adopt a rational China policy, and to make joint efforts with China to bring their ties back to the track of a stable, healthy growth," he said.

The year 2019 marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, and achievements in the past decades have "fully" proved that the two countries are not strategic rivals, but cooperative partners, said Wang.

As the world's two largest economies, China and the United States are highly intertwined economically and share a lot of common interests as well as broad prospects for cooperation, Wang noted.

Marilyn Librers, president of China Silicon Valley, an organization that promotes cooperation between China and the US tech hub, said she was excited to attend the Chinese Lunar New Year reception because she is optimistic about the future of the two countries.

"I see the future to be booming for both of our countries, which is very exciting," she told Xinhua, adding that both China and the United States are major countries with significant influence.

"We must trade and we must have commerce together," Librers said.

Geoffrey Wilson, president of the Physicians Organizing Committee, a San Francisco-based non-profit association which has committed itself to fighting for ethics in the health profession, said he was looking forward to "a great prosperous year" ahead for China and the United States.

Wilson said the phase-one deal will help improve the relationship between the United States and China because they can benefit a lot from cooperation that will continue in the new year.

He said China and the United States can benefit from each other in many ways and he expects trade to flow for both countries. "If we can remove the trade barriers, the entire world will benefit," Wilson said.