CHINA / National |
China, U.S. start first strategic economic dialogue(Xinhua)Updated: 2006-12-14 19:37 BEIJING -- China and the United States on Thursday morning kicked off their first strategic economic dialogue, the latest sign of bilateral efforts to boost their long-term relationship.
Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson co-chaired the dialogue as special representatives of President Hu Jintao and President George W. Bush.
She said the dialogue would focus on the discussion of "global, strategic and long-term" macro-economic issues of common concern. The United States would like to forge mutually-beneficial trade ties with China as China has integrated into the global economic system, Paulson was quoted as saying in a statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Paulson hailed the dialogue as a platform for the two countries to cope with strategic issues in economic relationship, the statement said. The two-day dialogue focused on "China's development road and economic development strategy," the statement said. The meetings are the first under a twice-a-year strategic economic dialogue mechanism, which was launched in the Chinese capital in September. The dialogue came at a time that China-US trade relationship may enter a more complicated and subtle stage as the five-year interim period after China's WTO accession came to an end on December11. That means China would face more intense foreign competitions in various fields. "That's why China and the United States held the strategic economic dialogue
at this time," said Yan Xuetong, a researcher with Chinese prestigious Tsinghua
University. "The dialogue will help avoid the escalation of the trade disputes."
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