Old disagreements do remain between China and the United States after the third Sino-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), but the consensus is that the overall atmosphere during the meeting was constructive, realistic and even cautiously optimistic.

The third S&ED was held under the relative calm of some signs of recovery in the United States and relatively robust growth in China, which may not be the case with the next round of the dialogue.

The economic environment is likely to be shadowed by darker clouds in the next few months. So the task is to prepare and sustain the dialogue through rising turbulence.