Chinese President Xi Jin-ping and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump (Source: AP)
In his congratulatory message, President Xi said China-US relations have experienced ups and downs and made historic progress over the past 40 years, bringing huge benefits to the two peoples and contributing greatly to world peace, stability and prosperity.
For his part, Trump said January 1st, 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of U.S.-China diplomatic relations. Great progress has been made in the development of bilateral ties over the years, he noted.
President Donald Trump said it is his priority to promote cooperative and constructive U.S.-China relations, adding that his solid friendship with President Xi has laid a firm foundation for great achievements by the two countries in the coming years.
Tensions between Beijing and Washington soared in 2018 over trade disputes.
The US and China are engaged in a trade war as each country continues to dispute tariffs placed on goods traded between them.
Both sides have imposed tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of goods. The US has hit USD250 billion of Chinese goods with tariffs since July, and China has retaliated by imposing duties on USD110 billion of US products.
The escalating U.S - China trade war will inhibit global economic growth this year and next, the International Monetary Fund said, even as President Donald Trump again threatened to impose higher tariffs on Chinese exports sent to the United States.
At a meeting on the sideline of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 1st, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jin-ping agreed to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks.
Mr Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on USD200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% on January 1st. Meanwhile, Beijing says the two sides agreed to open up their markets.
It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since the trade war erupted./.