HOUSTON, June 13 -- The China-U.S. relations now have reached a new historical starting point after having made historic progress over the past 35 years, said a Chinese envoy here on Friday.

Speaking at the reception marking his assumption of office, Chinese Consul General in Houston Li Qiangmin said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations 35 years ago, the China-U.S. relations have made historic progress, and have become one of the most important bilateral relations in the world.

"Today the China-U.S. relations have reached a new historical starting point. New realities call for new ways for countries to interact with each other and build new models of relationship," he said, adding that "our leaders, President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama, set the goal for China and the United States to work together to build a new model of major country relationship."

"This new model is characterized as one with no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation," Li said.

The Chinese diplomat said trade volume between the two countries has increased from a mere 2.5 billion U.S. dollars to 521 billion U.S. dollars, investment from scratch to over 100 billion U.S. dollars and two-way travelers from 10,000 a year to 10,000 a day.

"Most encouragingly, we now have hundreds of thousands of young students studying in each other country and they are future leaders of our nations and ambassadors of friendship," he said.

As for China's relations with the 8 southern U.S. states, Li said that China, which is enjoying fast growing cooperation with the southern part of the United States, has for many years ranked among the top three largest export markets for many southern states.

"Last year, the 8 states in my consular district saw more than 112 billion U.S. dollars of trade with China and 13.2 billion U.S. dollars investment from Chinese companies in energy, manufacturing, transportation industry and real estate," he said.

Li saw greater potential in China's cooperation with the southern U.S. states, saying that the potential comes from the continued growth of China-U.S. relations, the complementarities of the two economies and the strong support for closer partnership in government and business communities.