Looking at Sino-US strategic economic dialogue in a reasonable way

To the two-day first-ever Sino-US strategic economic dialogues, which opened Thursday, the United States has sent a "high-profile" array of high-ranking officials, who met with representatives of leading US commercial associations and big firms to solicit views on the eve of their China trip, so as to prepare themselves for the ongoing dialogue. The Chinese side has also sent a super array of senior officials to the dialogue.

Faced with such a "high-profile" array, different people naturally have different expectations to the dialogue. Some American political figures and media units seem to take every dialogue between China and the U.S. as an opportunity to exert pressures upon China, and there is no exception for this ongoing dialogue. Some American politicians claim that they would like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his party to bring back the "tangible" outcome they have expected for. Some media reports acknowledge that with a pressure from the US Congress, Paulson can no longer fulfill his duty by selling only a coupe of Boeing planes. These remarks fully show that they have failed to understand the proper perspective of Sino-US economic and trade ties and the valuation of the current economic dialogue.

The Sino-US strategic economic dialogue poses an occasion for consultations between the two sides. It is an opportunity to coordinate for the solution of many pending issues between the economies of China and the U.S. and also an opportunity for decision-makers of either side to listen to ideas and views from the opposite side, so as to avoid misjudgment and curb the differing views from being turned into actual conflicts. This represents the proper perspective of Sino-US economic dialogue, and the greatest outcome people should anticipate for the dialogue. Consultation does not mean setting forth demands by one side while being accepted indiscriminately by the other side. Likewise, China has set for quite a few demands on the United States, which also needs China's support on bilateral, regional and global affairs.

In its report on an all-round evaluation of US-China trade relations after China's entry into the World Trade Organization in December of 2001, the US Trade Representative Office enumerated the following benefits the U.S. has attained from its trade relations with China: Cheap Chinese commodities have spurred the United States' economic growth without any inflation, and China is a leading export market for the U.S. with the fastest growth rate. Since 2001, China has been elevated to the fourth export market for the U.S. from the ninth export market, and the growth rate of the US export to China was 22 percent and 20 percent respectively in 2004 and 2005. The maximum benefits and advantages the United States has received from China is a macroeconomic environment without inflation, which is cited as the best thing a nation can acquire from its external trade. In case of the excessive pursuance of other indexes, there will be possibly major interferences in the Sino-US normal trade that has brought such huge interests to the U.S. People hope that the US economy and trade plicy-makers at the current strategic dialogue will be sober-minded on this issue.

It is quite correct that Renminbi (RMB) exchange rate and intellectual property right protection are among the "hot" topics for discussion the American side has proposed for the Chinese side. Beyond any doubt, there are surely some people who would capitalize on the opportunity to speculate in RMB exchange rate around the strategic economic dialogue, and it is still harder to stop the speculation, but we can let tem be more reasonable instead of being swayed by a few investment banks. As far as the intellectual property right protection and other relevant issues are concerned, some American enterprises and agencies have willfully infringed upon the intellectual property rights with regard to China's trade marks, traditional expertise and inheritance resources and claim a huge amount of patent fees from China with invalid patent rightsĄ­ There are so numerous errors with the intellectual property right codes or regulations in the U.S. that IBM and a number of other American firms have complained and urge their country to learn from China in this regard.

It is really a rare opportunity for so many high ranking Chinese and American banking and economic officials to sit together to confer on major economic issues existing between the two nations. So people are convinced that both sides will do a still better job to coordinate their economic policies with their vision, determination and farsightedness as responsible big nations and in line the principles of sharing both responsibilities and obligations and sharing proceeds or rewards by the two countries.

By the People's Daily" on line, and the author Mei Xinyu, a research fellow with the Research Institute of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.