As Vice-Premier Wang Qishan and United States Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson co-chair the fifth Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) today, many have a question to ask - will this be the last of its kind?

Worries about the fate of the two-year-old consultation mechanism have been in the air since June, when its last session was held in Annapolis, Maryland.

Nobody can tell with certainty at this point, given that the next host of the White House is preoccupied with a promise of change.

But let us pray for the spirit that gave birth to the SED to sustain. It does not matter whether it will continue to be called SED, or conducted the way it has been. But the two countries just cannot afford to abandon the hard-earned consensus on the need to talk to each other. It took the Bush administration, and of course its Chinese counterpart, six years to get there. One of the truly significant successes of the Bush presidency is the establishment of the SED, which opened up real-world possibilities to anchor the once volatile bilateral ties.

Our negotiators do disagree, and even quarrel from time to time. But the beauty of the SED lies in the fact that they have a platform to talk face to face. Listening to each other is conducive to avoiding ill-informed decisions, to say the least.

Interdependence between our two economies has broadened and deepened in such a manner that none can live well with the other suffering. The need to coordinate and collaborate gets even more urgent as the current recession bites deeper. Neither can cope with the ongoing downturn behind closed doors. But both will become better off if our two countries buy more from each other. The more than 40 nuclear power plants China has planned for the next dozen years, for instance, may become a tremendous boost to American industries.

From product quality to energy and environmental conservation, and investment protection, the SED has harvested plenty of meaningful and tangible outcomes, which, to quote Paulson, "would not have been possible otherwise." Today and tomorrow, our economic caretakers will compare notes on macroeconomic risks, balanced growth, cooperation in energy and environmental undertakings, trade, and investment. Sources with the Ministry of Finance have predicted more agreements on product quality, food safety, trade and investment.

But nothing could possibly match the constructive approach the SED has cultivated. From the talks, both sides have developed a better understanding of each other, and more trust in each other. So much so that the Assistant Minister of Finance Zhu Guangyao took enhanced mutual confidence as the biggest achievement of the fourth SED session. So did Paulson.

We wish the new round of dialogue another success. Not just because we want the anticipated agreements, which are essential for both countries to tide over current troubles. It is more about its main theme "laying the foundation for a long-term Sino-US economic partnership."

Since the two countries have to deal with each other economically, they need something like the SED, if not the SED as it is.

(China Daily 12/04/2008 page8)