BEIJING, March 13 -- China and the United States can and must cooperate, and there are a lot that the two countries can achieve by working together, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said Monday.

Speaking at a press conference held after the conclusion of the annual session of China's national legislature, Li noted that there are some people in the United States who have been trumpeting decoupling with China in recent years.

"But I wonder how many people can truly benefit from this kind of hype," Li said.

Li noted that two-way trade between the two countries had amounted to a record high of nearly 760 billion U.S. dollars last year, citing statistics from the Chinese side.

"China and the United States are closely intertwined economically, and both have benefited from the other side's development," he said.

Citing his own experiences while working in Shanghai, Li said senior managers of multinational corporations he had talked to were all optimistic about the future of Shanghai and China, and they all believed that cooperation is the sure path to win-win outcomes.

"Encirclement and suppression are in no one's interests," said the premier.