US officials, experts hold high hopes for S&ED forum

Despite widespread concern that bilateral relations between the world's two largest economies have been heading downhill lately, US officials and experts expressed their optimism that the upcoming sixth meeting of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) will help get things back on track.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will fly to China next week as President Barack Obama's special representatives to the S&ED, to be held in Beijing on July 9-10. They will be joined by their Chinese counterparts: State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vice-Premier Wang Yang.

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Describing the past year as one full of a number of events that have affected the bilateral relationship, Lew said on the economic side, there has been an important breakthrough in China's approach to the Bilateral Investment Treaty.

"We have also seen some rockier things. It's not a straight line that only goes to progress," he said at a Tuesday morning meeting in Washington hosted by the US-China Business Council.

Growing tensions over maritime territorial disputes in the South and East China seas between China and US allies Japan and the Philippines and cyberespionage have made constant headlines in the past year.

"What we have to do is keep reminding each other how we can continue to make progress," Lew said. "So I am optimistic that we are going to be able to make some progress again this year."

Lew said there were some 60 issues the two sides are working on for the S&ED and a lot of progress has been made in the last 10 days.

China's currency exchange rate, market access and its commitment to economic reform as laid out by the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Central Committee are some of the key concerns for the US side, according to Lew.

China has expressed its concerns that the growing Chinese foreign direct investment in the US is facing unfair scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Some US lawmakers like to politicize Chinese FDI.