I will do the best I can as U.S. Ambassador. And although there is much work ahead to strengthen and expand U.S.-China cooperation — and to manage our differences when we don’t see eye-to-eye — I begin my ambassadorship with confidence that the overall state of our relationship is strong. One thing I do know is that the people in this room will have a lot of influence in the future of the U.S.-China relationship. For 70 years, Beijing Foreign Studies University has been a training ground for hundreds of China ’s top leaders, including my friend and YOUR ambassador to the U.S. , Zhang Yesui. Whatever your careers, in the years ahead, you will be the international face of China, and your choices will determine the steps China takes in confronting its own — and the world’s — challenges. But today, I’d like to discuss the steps I believe we must all take in strengthening the US- China relationship. To understand where the U.S.-China relationship is going, it’s helpful to remember just how far it has come already. When I first attended college in 1968, a gathering like this would not have been possible — because America did not even have an ambassador in Beijing. Contrast that with today, when it could be argued that the U.S.-China bond is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world. For 40 years, our two countries have been increasing our cooperation and interconnectedness for a very simple reason: It is in our mutual interest,