The upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics will play a very important role in promoting people-to-people exchanges and bilateral relations between China and the United States, Minister Jing Quan of the Chinese Embassy in the United States said Tuesday.

"Sports is a very important part of that people-to-people exchanges," which is the base of the bilateral relations, Jing said at a virtual press briefing on China's preparations for the Winter Olympics that will take place on Feb. 4-20.

"Definitely I think the Beijing Olympic Games will play a very important role in promoting people-to-people exchanges, getting people better understand each other," Jing said, adding it will be "helpful" for the development of bilateral relations.

When athletes from different countries get together and achieve wonderful performance, they send signals of living harmoniously, working together and solidarity to the world, he said.

"Ping-Pong Diplomacy" also played a "unique role" in bringing China and the United States together some 50 years ago when the two countries were seeking for improvement of their relations, said the Chinese official.

Noting that the two sides "have deepened mutual understanding" over the past year through various communications, Jing said the Chinese side "will still stay in close touch at different levels" with the U.S. side this year.

"Our aim is quite simple. We want getting the relations better and stable, and we want to reduce misunderstanding between our two sides," he said, adding the Chinese embassy wants to act as a bridge between the two countries and reduce misperceptions.

While there are always "ups and downs" in the bilateral relations over the past decades, the relations "could not fall into some situation like a roller coaster, sort of spiral down," Jing said.

"That's not in the interests of our two nations, our two peoples. So we sincerely hope that we can communicate more, and we can cooperate on issues of mutual interests," he said.