Right attitude to talks has been fruitful so far

China and the United States will hold a new round of high-level talks this week in their latest attempt to bridge their differences on economic and trade policies. Preparatory lower-level talks begin on Monday before the principal talks led by Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday and Friday.

That the respective delegations have progressively grown in size and the discussions have continued during the Christmas and Spring Festival holidays shows not only are both sides committed to finding a way to end their dispute, but also that concrete progress is being made toward achieving that goal.

In previous talks, China has shown its utmost sincerity by taking a practical problem-solving approach. For instance, by increasing imports of agricultural products from the US and accelerating the opening up of its financial sector. It has also agreed to take concrete measures to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights, a major concern of the US side.