Amid heightened tensions between China and the United States, Beijing's top envoy in Washington has called for a healthier bilateral relationship.

"As the most important bilateral relationship in the world, the China-US relationship bears on not only the well-being of our two peoples, but also the future of the entire world," Xie Feng, China's ambassador to the US, said at the annual gala of the National Committee on US-China Relations in New York on Tuesday.

A tariffs or trade war should not be fought and cannot be won, Xie said, urging action to uphold mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and collaboration.

"A tariff war or trade war will serve no one's interest in the end, and equality, respect and mutual benefit represent the only right way to properly handle differences."

China "does not want to fight such a war, but neither will we sit idly by when our rights and interests are harmed, and the international economic and trade rules as well as the multilateral trading system are undermined", Xie said.

As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the world's two largest economies and major nuclear-weapon states, "China and the US shoulder special and significant responsibilities for world peace, stability and prosperity", he said.

"Under the new situation, we share more, not fewer, common interests, and the strategic value of our cooperation has grown, not declined.

"There is no denying that, with differences in history, culture, system and national conditions, our two countries will not always see eye to eye. But we should not let prejudice and suspicion dominate our decision-making, nor should we allow confrontation and conflict to define our bilateral relations.

"Instead, we need to respect each other's core interests and major concerns, and make every effort to be partners and friends, rather than rivals or even adversaries."

Xie called for "real action and pool synergies to advance China-US exchanges and cooperation".

"The China-US relationship could not develop without strategic guidance from the top, nor could it flourish without the support of the people," he said, underscoring the strength of the business collaboration between the two countries, and encouraging more businesses to operate in China.

"China has unique strengths in system, market, industry and talents, and provides tremendous opportunities in areas including industrial transformation, technological innovation, expansion of consumption, new urbanization, infrastructure building and ensuring and improving people's livelihoods."

The key to a sound state-to-state relationship "lies in affinity between the people", he said.

"In this turbulent and fluid world we have a thousand reasons to get the China-US relationship right, and no single one to mess it up."