China and the US held their first-ever Diplomatic and Security Dialogue on Wednesday in Washington DC. This was established under the broader framework that came out of President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump’s meeting at Mar-a-Lago in April, and is designed to help move China-US relations forward in a spirit of cooperation.

This Diplomatic and Security Dialogue (DSD) is regarded as a two-plus-two mechanism between Beijing and Washington, an in-depth dialogue among top diplomatic and defense affairs officials. The US has this kind of mechanism with close allies such as Japan and Australia. So is it developing this kind of Dialogue mechanism with a signal that the two countries are getting closer? 

Su Ge, President of China Institute of International Studies, told that when you have objective review towards development of China-US relationship, the answer is definitely yes.

“These two countries share very important convergence of national interests, because both are large countries, members of security council, and the largest developed country and largest developing country. If these two countries cooperate, that would be a blessing for Asia Pacific region and the whole world. That’s why President Xi put cooperation as the only correct choice for the United States and China," he said. 

Besides cooperation, the uncertainty of China-US relationship have been defined as Cooperation, Competition and Confrontation (3Cs). But Rick Dunham, visiting scholar of Tsinghua University said before talking about the 3Cs, "We have to talk about one Donald Trump."

“He is very personal in his foreign policy. He would say I like you or I trust you to some leaders of other countries. So the important thing is he sat down with President Xi Jinping, and he said he likes him. The 3Cs should be put into context that he doesn’t have the same kind of trust with American traditional allies like Germany and Australia, as to king of Saudi Arabia and President Xi Jinping and people who impressed him greatly,” said Dunham.