Washington — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the third round of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue has resulted in broader understanding between U.S. and Chinese officials and their interaction is advancing trust between the world’s two largest economic powers.
Speaking to reporters in Washington May 10 after the conclusion of the two-day discussions, Clinton said differences remain between China and the United States on sensitive issues, including China’s human rights practices, but the willingness of both sides to candidly discuss them has built trust between the two countries.
“We do not expect to find agreement on every issue. We know that we approach some of the sensitive matters from a different perspective than our Chinese counterparts, but I do think it is fair to say … we have a deeper understanding of the viewpoint of the other,” she said.
“I think we have had such an open dialogue on every issue that we have built trust because we’re not keeping any issue under the table or off the agenda. We are talking about the hard issues and we’re developing these habits of cooperation across our government,” Clinton said.
The secretary said that mutual understanding and mutual trust between the United States and China have been enhanced since the dialogues began in 2009, and said that given the two countries’ differences in history, culture, development models and political systems, “it is important that we continue intensive consultations.”
President Obama met with Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo at the White House May 9, where he raised U.S. concerns over human rights in China and encouraged China to “implement policies that support sustained and balanced global growth as well as a more balanced bilateral economic relationship,” according to a May 9 White House press release.
The White House discussions also focused on ways to advance shared U.S. and Chinese nonproliferation objectives, “including working together to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, to meet its international commitments and to avoid destabilizing behavior,” the White House said.
The U.S. and Chinese delegations to the third round of the dialogue included senior military leaders, and a senior Obama administration official said he hoped that their participation will contribute to building long-term strategic trust between the two countries.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said in a May 9 teleconference that many of the most sensitive security issues between the United States and China are “crosscutting in nature” across the civilian and military components of the two governments.
“By tackling some of those sensitive issues together, we hope we can break down misunderstandings and misperceptions that could potentially lead to some sort of miscalculation,” the official said.
Both countries recognize that misunderstandings and misperceptions “many times most undermine that strategic trust,” the official said, and he said he was encouraged by the discussions that the United States and China approach the challenge “in similar ways.”