By Ma Hongman

On June 17 and 18, the fourth China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue was held in the United States. During the conference China and the U.S. discussed bilateral relations regarding economics, financial and trade.

Special Envoy for China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue from the U.S. Department of the Treasury Alan Holmer said that sustainable economic development was the meeting’s theme. Presently global inflation and soaring international oil prices have put pressure on the theme of "Sustainable Economic Development" and this topic is not only in the common interest of the two countries, it stands as a global problem. The large-scale depreciation of the US dollar is one of the key reasons generating high oil prices. It also has caused the Chinese government much difficulty in lowering commodity prices across the board.

Actually the topic was also highlighted during the G8 Meeting, the Asia-Europe Finance Ministers' Meeting, and most of the other international conferences held in June. In this writer's opinion, global resistance to inflation would assist China in fighting against inflation in the future and it must be given close scrutiny.

During previous China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogues, both China and U.S. negotiated for common benefits but obvious conflicts hindered this goal. For example, the US side wanted the Chinese RMB to rise in value and requested that Chinese imports be limited. Ironically, the US sub-prime crisis caused a sharp decline in purchasing power and Americans are actually benefiting from Chinese-made low price imports. And, as the US dollar constantly depreciated during the last 6 years, higher oil prices aren’t just a problem for Chinese government and economists but also pose challenges to the U.S. economy as well. As a result, when the U.S. encountered their sub-prime crisis in conjunction with global rises in oil prices, both parties are temporarily putting their conflicts aside. And in fact the two countries are making great efforts to cooperate on a common interest: getting high oil prices under control.