That today China-US bilateral trade is in the hundreds of billions is a remarkable achievement since the days when American President Richard Nixon made his historic 1972 visit to China, Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai said Wednesday.

"We still remember the days when President Nixon visited China with little trade between us. Last year, we had over $550 billion in bilateral trade. We have really traveled very far and achieved a lot," Cui said.

Cui made his comments in a speech at The US-China Business Council (USCBC) 2016 Gala in Washington.

Citing Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks at the APEC CEO Summit last month, Cui restated, "China will not shut the door to the outside world but will open it even wider."

"China will make its investment climate more open, favorable and transparent to allow foreign companies to share in China's growing opportunities," Cui said.

He noted that bilaterally, the US and China have "such a huge potential for further cooperation. We should do more to help each other in our respective economic structure, we should do more to have better economic policy coordination, and we will certainly do more to help each other build infrastructure and open market access to each other."

Cui pointed out that the political foundation of China-US relations should not be undermined; instead, it should be preserved.

"The basic norms of international relations should be observed, not ignored, certainly not be seen as something that you can trade off. And indeed national sovereignty and territorial integrity are not bargaining chips, absolutely not," Cui said.

John Frisbie, USCBC president, praised Cui and said US-China relations have benefited "a great deal".

"The ambassador also helped navigate the US-China relationship. We value the leadership demonstrated by Ambassador Cui, the steady focus, and even temper of style. I also want to say that under his guidance too, the Chinese Embassy continues to add talented staff playing professional and sophisticated roles and managing the relationship as well," Frisbie said.

The USCBC is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of more than 200 American companies that do business with China.

Contact the writer at [email protected]

Yuan Yuan in Washington contributed to the story