Mutual trust, less suspicion and more candid talk should be the ingredients to help China and the United States seek common ground and solve difficult problems when it comes to the Internet, said industry players, government officials and scholars at the US-China Internet Industry Forum on Wednesday in Redmond, Washington.

The forum, now in its eighth consecutive year, was held at the Redmond campus of Microsoft.

Lu Wei, minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China, assured those attending that the Chinese government will continue to welcome foreign investment and technology.

"As President Xi Jinping emphasized many times in his recent remarks that the relationship between China and the US is mutually beneficial and complementary, we need to work together as two big countries that are willing to take more responsibility, and together we can make the world a better place," Lu said.

On challenges in the Internet industry that China and the US encounter, Lu again cited Xi in reiterating the importance of more understanding and trust between the two countries.

Xi, in a speech on Tuesday night at a welcoming dinner hosted by local and national communities in Seattle, said, "We need to work together to reduce estrangement and suspicion in order to forestall misunderstanding and miscalculations.

"Mutual benefit and win-win situation is always the essential aspect of the Sino-US cyber relationship," he said. "The Internet originated in the US and has greatly promoted the progress of human society. China is the world's largest Internet market and also the 'land of promise' for US high-tech companies. More than 600 million Internet users in China bring infinite business opportunities."

So far, more than 2,500 US IT enterprises have invested in China, expanding their market while driving the development of the Internet in China. "Many of them have made more profits in China than in their home country. They have shared the result of China's Internet development," Xi added.

On the sidelines of the forum, seven deals or memorandums of understanding were signed between major Chinese and US Internet companies, including Microsoft Corp, LinkedIn Corp, Baidu Inc, China Electronics Technology Group Corp, Unisplendour Corp Ltd and Didi Kuaidi.

Microsoft announced on Wednesday a strategic partnership with China's Baidu to deliver Windows 10 with Baidu search in China. Under the agreement, the two sides will make it easy for Chinese users to upgrade to Windows 10 with the distribution channel "Windows 10 Express". Baidu.com will become the default homepage and search engine for Microsoft Edge browser.

Liu Qiangdong, founder and chairman of JD.com, an e-commerce enterprise in China, told the forum that Chinese and US Internet companies have extensive cooperation in finance, technology, human resources and marketing.

"Currently, Chinese Internet enterprises are actively expanding international business and stepping up efforts in overseas investment and acquisition.

"Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and some other companies have set up branches or offices in the US. JD.com has also invested in some US technology companies," Liu said.

He said the number of Chinese Internet users is expected to exceed 1 billion, which will benefit Chinese and US Internet enterprises alike.

Wu Hequan, president of the Internet Society of China, said: "The industries in both countries have the same interest demands. Cooperation is an important approach to a win-win-result. The US is the country that has the most advanced Internet technologies and also the most advanced applications. Both countries' digital economies have maintained good growth momentum."

"The economic relationship between China and the US is the most important one between two countries for the 21st century," Wu added.

US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews said, "What we need to work for is how to build mutual prosperity and mutual security for our peoples."

Contact the writer at junechang@chinadailyusa.com and liazhu@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 09/25/2015 page3)