China and the United States are experiencing the first prolonged period of calm relations in about 15 years as their economies grow more closely linked, former US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky said at the 2003 annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia Monday.

She said the United States and China share an interest in trade and the long-term success of economic reform in China, and have common ground in regional issues including the Asian financial crisis and the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

The leaders of both countries are aware of the consequences should the relationship go fundamentally wrong, she added.

She said China's economic emergence can be traced through a shift in regional policy making

"First with its approach to the Asian financial crisis, more recently its proposal for a China-ASEAN free trade area, its position in the G-20 at Cancun and its new role as the largest local market for Asian exports, China is assuming an Asian economic leadership role," she said.

She said the political and diplomatic influence of China in the region is in large part a function of its emerging role as the economic driver of Asian growth.

(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2003)