The most wide-ranging dialogue in the history of modern U.S.-China relations ended with some accord on contentious issues of currency and trade, but underlined a fundamental shift in the relationship between Washington and a newly assertive Beijing.

Few countries can attract global attention as much as the People’s Republic of China has done. The intelligentsia, policy makers, and ordinary citizens marvel at China’s ability to infiltrate every nook of the globe in very unassuming ways. This appears to be a threat to other imperial powers, those who have dominated the globe as if they have a natural right to do so.

The idea of a "G-2" was first introduced by C. Fred Bergsten, director of Peterson Institute for International Economic, as a mechanism for promoting agreement between the two sides primarily to address international economic issues. However, it migrated to strategic issues...

Amid the big U.S-China issues of the day—rising tensions over North Korea, the Strategic and Economic Dialogue between the two countries this week in Beijing — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner took some time out Sunday for a half-court game of four-on-four with some students from a high school affiliated with Renmin University in the Chinese capital.

While China is often seen as the centre for the production of cheap and sometimes poor quality goods, there are certain other exports the world’s most populous nation hopes will endure: language and culture.

Despite the incredible energy Israelis spend on integrating with the American consensus - sending students to Harvard and MIT, scholarly hob knobbing and shoulder rubbing with policy institute doyens in Washington and political back scrubbing - no such efforts (or even signs of interest) are invested in developing relations with China.

President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday laid down the blueprint for Taiwan's “gold decade,” and expressed his belief that improving cross-strait ties could compel China to remove the vast number of missiles that it has aimed at the island.

Kim Jong Il's recent visit to China was a gentle reminder that the road to Pyongyang leads through Beijing. China is the only power that has remained engaged with North Korea, through many ups and downs, whereas Russia, Japan, the United States and South Korea have all come and gone.