A month after the presidents of the US and China held an unconventional summit at a California resort, their top officials are convening in more staid surroundings in Washington to review security and economic issues that reflect growing ties but also deep-seated differences between the world powers.
The fifth edition of the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue opening Wednesday takes place in less fraught circumstances than last year's in Beijing, which was overshadowed by the escape of dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng from house arrest to the US Embassy.
But there's still plenty to argue about. The Cabinet-level officials taking part in the two days of talks at the State Department and Treasury will address the growing US anxiety over cybertheft, the nuclear program of China's ally North Korea and barriers to US trade and investment in China. They will also discuss cooperation on tackling climate change.
Vice President Joe Biden will open the dialogue, and Secretary of State John Kerry — returning for the occasion from his wife's bedside in Boston after she was hospitalised — and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew are due to lead the US side, which includes more than a dozen government agency heads. A similarly heavyweight Chinese delegation is led by Vice Premier Wang Yang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi.
When President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping met at the Sunnylands resort in June they sought a more collaborative relationship between their countries, whose strategic rivalry belies deep economic interdependence. Xi, who recently took the helm of the one-party state after a once-in-a-decade leadership transition, has long spoken of establishing a new type of relations that would avoid conflict between the established power, America, and the rising power, China.
But translating the grand vision into action, and reconciling the fundamental political differences, isn't easy. The California summit was short on concrete outcomes, and although Xi did express common cause with Obama in his opposition to North Korea's nuclear weapons program, that has yet to translate into effective pressure on Pyongyang.
When the US-China dialogue was first staged, the emphasis was on economy and trade. It has since morphed into a sprawling discussion of bilateral and strategic issues that some have said make the talks unwieldy. Officials will grapple with a wide variety of topics, among them Iran's nuclear program, the civil war in Syria and human rights in China itself.
The Centre for Strategic International Studies think tank said the Chinese side will have little room to maneuver as the dialogue comes ahead of a meeting in October of the ruling party's central committee, where Xi's economic reform plans will be rolled out. Still, Beijing will likely want to show some incremental progress on Washington's trade and investment concerns, including protection of intellectual property.