Economy

China-US S&ED, a transpacific conversation for co-op

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-12 16:18

Extending mutual trust to other fields

The S&ED was first proposed in April 2009 by Chinese President Hu Jintao and his US counterpart Barack Obama during their initial meeting in London on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit.

The annual talks would bring together the economic, diplomatic and security elite from both nations. The dialogue mechanism was upgraded from the former Strategic Dialogue and biennial Strategic Economic Dialogue, initiated by the two countries in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

This year for the first time, Chinese and US military generals sat face to face to discuss regional and global security matters in a newly inaugurated strategic and security talk put under the S&ED.

General Ma Xiaotian, the PLA deputy chief of the general staff, and Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy as well as Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun, US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, and other officials from both countries attended the talk.

Related readings:  China-US dialogue reaps benefits  US companies eye Chinese market for growth  China, US vow to building better business environment  China-US dialogue reaps benefits

According to a published outcome of the meeting, the two sides share a wide range of common interests with a mutual goal of maintaining peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, and decided to establish a US-China consultation concerning the Asia-Pacific. The two countries intend to hold the first session at the earliest time this year.

Clinton said the growing dialogue mechanism reflects the complexity and the importance of China-US ties.

The newly-integrated dialogue mechanism is particularly important against the backdrop that military communications between China and the United States have witnessed ups and downs during the past few years.

American arms sales to Taiwan have been the major factor disrupting cross-military interactions.

Zhou Qi, an expert on America with China's Academy of Social Science, told Xinhua enhancing military communications is essential for both China and the United States.

"Compared to their exchanges in other areas like trade and culture, inter-military exchanges have been left far behind," Zhou said. "Whenever there is a problem between the two nations, military link would be the first to break off and the last to resume."

Zhou said such a dialogue would build mutual trust step-by-step so that the two nations could know more about the other's intentions through better communications and reduce possible miscalculations.

She also said that globalization also demands that China and the US work together, especially in areas such as counter terrorism, the drug and organized crime, and nuclear non-proliferation.

Besides achievements related to economic and security sectors, both countries have achieved altogether a list of 48 outcomes also concerning areas like energy, environment, climate change and technology, demonstrating the width and depth of bilateral collaboration, said Zhang Zhijun.