Balance common ground and competition

In retrospect, the relationship between China and the United States has basically shown an upward trend, and the bond between the two countries has rarely appeared so promising as it has since the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing in November.

The first half of 2014 witnessed a dramatic nosedive in bilateral relations, thanks to trade and investment clashes and political disagreements. For Washington, China's anti-monopoly investigations, Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea, and sovereignty-related clashes with some of the US' allies were sore points.

Things picked up in the second half, thanks to the two countries' efforts to melt the ice. Close high-level communications between Beijing and Washington not only eased the rising tensions, but also incubated a number of cooperative deals.

For instance, during the sixth round of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing in July, the two countries reached a total of 116 concrete deals, in areas such as global governance and anti-graft.

The highlight of the upturn in China-US ties this year was the summit meeting after the APEC week, as President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama held fruitful talks during Obama's visit, resulting in a slew of economically and militarily landmark consensuses, especially the agreement on climate change.

To be specific, both presidents agreed to expand the scope of the Information Technology Agreement and speed up negotiations on the Bilateral Investment Treaty. They also established the "two mutual trust mechanisms": a mutual reporting and trust mechanism on major military operations and a code of safe conduct to prevent naval and air military encounters.