In the following weeks, Beijing is to host a series of US high-level officials, among whom Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Gorge W. Bush.

Against the backdrop of recent contentions on the currency exchange rate, intellectual property protection, trade deficit and military expenditure, US officials' intense visits to China are expected to leave significant impact on the development of China-US ties.

Snow and Greenspan arrived in Beijing Friday for the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors.

They will also attend the meetings of the annual talks of the Sino-US Joint Economic Commission on October 16 and 17, together with Chris Cox, the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Reuben Jeffery III, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Hu Guocheng, a researcher of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Bush administration is currently under great pressure from the trade protectionists on the issue of the RMB exchange rate.

"Snow and Greenspan's visit to China is at a crucial moment," Hu said. "They will have an opportunity to better understand China's timetable of currency exchange rate reform and thus make better judgement and decisions."

Following Snow and Greenspan, Rumsfeld will arrive in Beijing, leading a large military delegation. This is Rumsfeld's first visit to China as Defense Secretary since he took office in 2001.

Fu Mengzi, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Contemporary International Relations, said Rumsfeld's upcoming visit marks the substantial resumption of military exchanges between China and the United States.

"The trip will enable senior US military officials to have a close look at China and help reduce their misjudgment and misunderstanding of China," Fu said.

China and the United States are the world's largest developing and developed nations, and their relationship concerns the world's peace, stability and development.

In September, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with US President George W. Bush in New York and the two agreed to further improve exchanges to expand consensus and cooperation. Bush said he was planning to visit China in November after a summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in the Republic of Korea.

Observers noticed that Chinese and US high-ranking officials have kept frequent contacts this year.

On July 10 to 11, China received four key members from the Bush administration at the same time, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns and Trade Representative Robert Portman.

In August, China and the United States held their first strategic dialogue within 26 years since they forged diplomatic ties. The two also agreed to hold the second strategic dialogue in the United States several months later.

"Such frequent high-level contacts between China and the United States are really rare in the history of their relations," Fu said.

He said such contacts showed that the channel of communication between the two governments is unblocked and it also indicated that there exist more problems and challenges that should be addressed jointly by the two countries.

The Chinese scholar said there are some uncertainties in terms of US government's policy towards China. "But with frequent high-level exchanges and increasingly close cooperation in the economic and other fields, I believe the situation will evolve towards a positive direction."

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2005)