BEIJING – China will continue to support people-to-people exchanges with the United States and help build a constructive relationship of strategic stability based on respect, fairness, and reciprocity, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry's spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a regular press briefing where US citizen David Victor Plymire's connection to Huangyuan county, in Northwest China's Qinghai province, was mentioned. Previously, the moving reunion of Yin Yuzhen and her American friend Ronald Sakolsky, who had worked together to combat desertification, also touched many people in both China and the United States.

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Plymire, 95, lived in Huangyuan for 17 years, and regards the place as his hometown. Plymire has helped donate medical equipment to Huangyuan, provided financial aid for local education, and facilitated training opportunities in the United States for the county's English teachers, according to Mao.

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Plymire once humbly said that all he has done is simply "fulfilling my duty to my own family," Mao cited, noting that his story has touched many people.

People-to-people friendship holds the key to state-to-state relations, Mao said, adding that the exchanges between the Chinese and US people are like small streams that ultimately converge to form the vast river of China-US friendship.