Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for the fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), speaks during a press conference via video link in Beijing, capital of China, March 4, 2022. The press conference of the session was held via video link due to COVID-19 prevention and control requirements. Zhang took questions from media on the agenda of the session and the work of the people's congresses. [Xinhua/Chen Yehua]

BEIJING -- Taking China as a rival will only undermine the China-US mutual trust and cooperation, said a Chinese spokesperson Friday.

Mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation should be the right approach for China and the United States to get along with each other in the new era, Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for the fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress, said at a press conference.

The key to peaceful coexistence is mutual respect, he said, stressing that win-win cooperation serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, and is also the shared aspiration of the international community.

To use China's development as an excuse and take China as a strategic rival will only erode the mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries, and will eventually hurt its own interests of the United States, the spokesperson noted.

The practices of drawing lines based on ideology, forming exclusive circles and stoking confrontation between blocs all go against the trend of the times and will lead to nowhere, he said.

Stable ties between China and the United States are good for the development of both sides, and conducive to maintaining international peace and effectively responding to climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and other global challenges, Zhang said.