US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill on Tuesday gave a very positive account of growing dialogues and cooperation between the United States and China, saying "there is no relationship in the world more important for us than the relationship with China."

Addressing a conference on the history of Sino-US relations at the State Department, Hill said the United States and China "are very much linked, if not entirely by a common past, but certainly by a common future."

He said people of all political persuasions in Washington overwhelmingly agree that the relationship with China "is our key relationship. This is a relationship that we have to above all other relationships in the world nurture and make it work ... because the stakes are simply enormous. There are not only stakes in East Asia, they are all over the world. We have to work, we have to find ways to work with China."

Hill said Washington will continue the process of conducting the strategic dialogue launched by former US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo. Moreover, the two countries also started the strategic economic dialogue last week in addition to a number of existing interchanges on specific economic issues.

He also pointed out that the United States and China have very successful cooperation in law enforcement and the two countries are also beginning to hold talks on military transparency.
 
On international arena, Hill said the two countries are cooperating very closely on the issue of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and the Iran issue as well.

On relations with Southeast Asian countries, Hill disputed the notion that the United States is somehow staging a strategic withdrawal from that region while China is staging a strategic entry into that area. "I don't buy the idea that we are leaving and I don't buy the idea that China wants us to leave. I think more China in Southeast Asia does not mean less US."

"For years and years, decades and decades, the world is looking for a second engine of growth. I think many countries are finding that second engine of growth. It's called China, It's called the China economy. And we welcome that," Hill added.

Overall, Hill said he believes that "there is a real reason for optimism" in Sino-US relationship.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2006)