China is ready to work with the United States under the condition of mutual respect. This is what President of China Xi Jinping said ahead of his upcoming virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden, CNBC reports.

“Right now the China-US relations are in a historically critical stage,” Jinping wrote in a letter addressed to the National Committee on United States-China Relations, a New York-based non-commercial organization.

Biden and Jinping are preparing to hold a virtual meeting next week, Reuters reported a few hours before publication of the letter, citing its source.