On The China-U.S. Strategic And Economic Dialogue: Its Implications For China-U.S. Relations

No relationship is as important in the twenty-first century as the one between the U.S., the world existing power, and China, the world rising power. Since the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the U.S., tremendous progress has been made in bilateral relations. However, the bilateral relationship has been infested with many knotty issues such as trade, security and human rights disputes. To mitigate and resolve these issues, the first Strategic Dialogue (SD) was established at the suggestion of President Hu Jintao and President George W. Bush. Through six year's evolvement, the SD has been escalated to the Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), a reflection of the progress in the China-U.S. relations over the course of last thirty years and the shared commitment to building a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship for the 21st century.Compared with other dialogue mechanisms, the S&ED is of the highest level, more strategic, dynamic and specialized. The author tries to elaborate on substantive outcomes of the S&ED and its profound influence on China-U.S. relations. The dialogue aims at integrating China-U.S. relations into a formal and systematic mechanism and allowing officials at the highest level to work together to cope with severe challenges. It succeeds in providing a platform for resolving economic and trade issues, enhancing mutual trust, transforming challenges into cooperation, laying the foundation for the sound development of bilateral relations, promoting regional and international stability and development, and setting a good example for handling issues with other countries.