BEIJING, March 13. (TASS) - The economies of China and the United States are heavily interconnected, therefore, the two countries should simply cooperate, Premier of the State Council of China Li Qiang told a news conference on Monday.

"I have noticed that some in the US have been fanning discussions about the severing of ties with China in recent years. Sometimes the topic gets much attention in the media. Yet, I don’t know how many people could benefit from it," he said, summing up the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress.

The two economies are intertwined, while trade between China and the US hit a record $760 billion last year, Li said. "All this suggests that China and the United States can and should cooperate," he underscored, describing bilateral cooperation as promising. "Containment and pressure will not benefit anyone," he concluded.

On Friday, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby White House said at a briefing that Washington would stay the course toward competition China upon Xi Jinping’s re-election as Chinese leader for a third term. "What I can tell you is that [US] President [Joe Biden] is focused on managing the strategic competition with China. <…> We're well poised to succeed in that kind of a competition," he said.