What can we learn from 2015 about China-US relationship? Three things come to mind. First, dialogue is the best way to address our differences. President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to the United States from Sept 22 to 25, his first such visit after assuming office.

Prior to Xi's visit, I made two trips to the US where I met a lot of American friends with whom I discussed China-US relationship. They all sounded depressed and were genuinely worried about the future prospects. They cited divergences on numerous issues between the two countries, such as cyber security, the South China Sea issue and human rights.

The US media played up these divergences. They presented cyber security as the most contentious issue and asserted that the US was a major victim of hacking "originating from China". China kept denying the allegations, but the atmosphere surrounding China-US ties continued to worsen. Rumors had it that the US government was considering imposing sanctions on China for the "hacking attacks", and people feared Xi's state visit to the US might end up in failure.