Washington, May 13 (IANS): Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai warned that some people in the United States are trying to place a "glass curtain" between the two countries.

Cui made the remarks on Friday at the panel discussion "Forty Years of US-China Relations" hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a policy research organization based in Washington, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

There are some people in the US who are trying to place a "glass curtain" between the two nations, so as to impede bilateral exchanges in economy, science and technology, and people-to-people engagements, and even stoke US suspicion against exchange students and research fellows from China, said the Chinese ambassador.

China hopes these ominous trends would not be recognized by US mainstream society, said Cui, who also called on the two sides to enhance dialogue to eliminate the "deficit of mutual understanding".

Beijing and Washington, after having come together 40 years ago united by common strategic interests, have seen the expansion of cooperation and common interests in bilateral, regional and global issues, the ambassador said.

Their wide-ranging common interests have stimulated bilateral relations in the past 40 years and will serve as an important foundation of their future ties, he said.

China has no desire to contend for global dominance with the US; rather, it wishes to work with the US side for a new type of relations featuring non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, he said.

The event gathered at least 200 participants from politics, business, academia and media.