China-U.S. S&ED useful to move forward bilateral agenda: experts (2)

S&ED

Although the S&ED is criticized by some as unwieldy and overly process-oriented, Goodman believed it's a critical part of the bilateral relationship between the world's two largest economic powers.

"Given the state of the U.S.-China relationship, it is very important just to have dialogues even if it doesn't produce concrete results every meeting," said Goodman.

"The U.S.-China relationship is probably the most important, because it involves many other countries," noted Scissors.

"The U.S.-China relationship involves all the supply chain. So if the more the U.S. and China can get along economically, the more reassured the rest of the world is," he explained.

However, Goodman believed that the S&ED could be more productive and more focused, adding that it's a good evolution to create working groups on climate change and cyber security under the dialogue this year.

"I think it's a smaller group that's more focused on the agenda, but still subjective to the overall guidance, leadership and accountability of the broad higher level dialogue. I think it's a good innovation," he said.

Goodman said those two groups highlighted the elements of collaboration and competition between the U.S.-China relations. In terms of climate change, there is quite potential for collaboration between the two sides, while on the cyber security side, that's one of the difficult issues of bilateral relationship which requires careful management.

"I think these two groups particular are very useful for the development of the S&ED process," added Goodman.