Opinion

Progress on Sino-US ties, but a great deal still to do

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-01 10:39

Xu Mingqi, deputy director of the Institute of World Economics with Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

China and the US have both expressed a positive attitude towards the achievements of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), but differences remain.

After US President Barack Obama took office, the US government upgraded the previous China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) to S&ED - the level of dialogue was heightened although only one word was added. Discussions, therefore, have expanded from the economy to politics, and from bilateral issues to international ones.

Cooperation also extends to a variety of sectors including energy, the environment, technology, customs, health and law enforcement.

Some American scholars expressed skepticism before the dialogue started on May 24, calling it unnecessary if the talks between the two sides were unable to achieve concrete results such as pressing for faster appreciation of the yuan or China making a commitment toward further open its markets or better protecting intellectual property rights.

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As a matter of fact, the establishment of such a mechanism involving multiple departments of both governments and personal contacts between officials of the two countries is far more important than visits between individual departments of the two countries.

Therefore, I believe the achievements of the dialogue should not simply be measured by the completion of some agreements or concessions made on specific issues by the two sides.

This dialogue did not center on sensitive issues like the exchange rate of the yuan, which indicated that both sides expect more in terms of mutual economic interests in a broader sense.

But it also means the two sides have differences on that issue. They simply do not want to highlight it.

Differences between the two are obvious, for example, in terms of the opening of China's financial market and the formal recognition of China's market economy status (MES).

China is not satisfied with the US position on MES, because it does not represent a substantial change.