China, U.S. should reaffirm importance of good ties: expert

China and the United States should reaffirm the importance of good relations between the two countries during their strategic and economic dialogue in Beijing, a U.S. China expert said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"I think the (China-U.S.) relationship is pretty well defined. It would be very nice to have some tangible things that the two sides could work on together to demonstrate the cooperative relationship," Charles Freeman told Xinhua.

Freeman, chair of China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he was not sure the second round of China-U.S. strategic and economic dialogue would actually develop those tangible things.

Nevertheless, he stressed: "It is certainly important that the two sides reemphasize how important good relations are."

"There are contentious things on both sides, it is difficult to see this is gonna be resolved, either of those issues," he said. "But it is important to talk."

On economic cooperation, Freeman said China and the United States needed to demonstrate that "they are able to avoid dipping into overly protectionist measures" and make sure overall global trade was boosted.

The two sides also needed to talk about "at least the framework of a financial architecture which would involve both sides much more fundamentally," said the China expert, who once served as assistant U.S. trade representative for China affairs.

When asked about the China-U.S. dialogue on strategic security, Freeman said he certainly hoped the two sides would "agree on a framework to come back to the table and pursue even more robust military-to-military dialogue."

"That has been difficult for both sides to do, although I think there has been some willingness to do it and not to make military-to-military hostility," he said.

The second round of the China-U.S. strategic and economic dialogue is scheduled to take place in Beijing early next week and is expected to bring together U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told reporters Thursday China would work with the United States for positive results from this round of dialogue.

Source: Xinhua