S&ED nurtures fresh ties

The fifth round of the China-US Strategic & Economic Dialogue (S&ED) Thursday concluded in Washington DC, with officials from both sides trying to make tangible progress to build a new type of major power relationship advocated by both leaders.

Addressing a plenary meeting of the strategic discussions of the two-day dialogue on Thursday, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi proposed that a new type of major power relationship should adhere to two principles. One is that the two sides should build the relationship in the spirit of building on foundations and common interests, and the other is that they should build the relationship in the spirit of mutual respect, and strive to obtain win-win results through cooperation, Xinhua reported.

Co-chairing the meeting, US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said the two countries must look beyond the idea of historical conflict between rising and established powers, and recognize that dialogue and cooperation not only benefit the two countries themselves, but also the region and the entire world.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, who chaired the economic discussions of the dialogue, Wednesday said in his opening remarks that "Our job in this round is to turn the important agreements between the two presidents into tangible outcomes, and add substance to this new model of major country relationship," Reuters reported.

Both China and the US should be candid and results-oriented, said Wang, the Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama pointed out the need to build the new model for bilateral relations during their casual summit in California last month.

Although US Vice President Joe Biden stressed in a speech at the opening session of the S&ED that the US-China relationship "is and will continue to be a mix of competition and cooperation," Jin Canrong, a deputy dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times the US was expected to show more initiative in forging the new relationship.

Niu Xinchun, a researcher with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that it will take a long time to forge the new relationship, as mutual trust between China and the US cannot be built with one stroke.

"The Xi-Obama summit has set a strategic framework for the new type of relationship, but there needs to be more bilateral talks to add flesh and blood to invigorate it," he said.

Yang said Wednesday that promoting a new type of bilateral relations should start with the Asia-Pacific region, an area where the two countries share the most overlapping interests. He stressed that by upholding peace, as well as cooperative and win-win diplomatic policy in the Asia-Pacific region, China will neither be provocative nor timid in dealing with regional issues, according to Xinhua.

During the S&ED, Biden stressed the stakes and responsibility the two countries share in supporting the global economy. "Your own plans call for the kinds of changes that have to take place, that are difficult, like here, but if they do, they will benefit us both, including free exchange rate, shifting to a consumption-led economy, enforcing intellectual property rights and renewing innovation," he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

On climate change, the two countries identified five priority areas to further strengthen bilateral cooperation. The areas included reducing emissions from heavy-duty and other vehicles, promoting smart grids, increasing energy efficiency in buildings and industry, strengthening capacity building, as well as improving greenhouse gas data collection and management.

In addition to climate change, Jin noted that China was expected to cooperate more with the US over the North Korean nuclear issue, cyber security and new energy.

"However, because the US has a very different stance on the territorial disputes in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, the bilateral talks over cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region are not expected to achieve much progress," Jin told the Global Times.