By Yuan Peng

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's current visit comes at a time Chinese goods' safety, the yuan's exchange rate and China's impact on global climate change are becoming hot topics in the United States.

The US Senate Finance Committee passed a bill last week apparently targeting the Chinese currency's exchange rate. Newsweek and Business Week magazines as well CNN have reported extensively on issues concerning the safety of China-made commodities. It seems to this writer that Chinese-US economic and trade ties are at a crossroads.

On the shoulders of Paulson, a sponsor of the China-US strategic economic dialogue and also a senior US official who "knows China well", naturally rests the responsibility to stabilize bilateral economic relations. His current China visit, therefore, takes on added significance.

It could set the tone for the third round of the strategic economic dialogue that is due to open in Beijing at the end of the year, and consolidate decisions taken at the second round of dialogue.

During his visit, Paulson once again emphasized the importance of striking a balance in bilateral trade, urged China to quicken the pace of the yuan's appreciation and also expressed concerns about Chinese goods' safety. But the purpose of his visit goes beyond all this, in the opinion of this writer.

His first stop was Xining, capital of Northwest China's Qinghai Province. He carefully studied the ecological system around Qinghai Lake and the progress of environmental protection there, implying environment issues top his agenda.

His Qinghai visit has at least three implications.

First, Paulson hopes to see decisions taken at the second round of the strategic economic dialogue on environmental protection come to fruition.

Second, he hopes to include environmental issues on the agenda of the third round of dialogue.

Third, his Qinghai visit was also designed to urge China to improve the safety of its products and do something about climate change.

This is because both products' safety and climate change have their roots in environmental pollution. In doing so, Paulson hopes to take some domestic political pressure off his shoulders.

Premier Wen Jiabao once praised former US Commerce Secretary Don Evans as being an official of compassion because he made visits to China's underdeveloped west in an effort to get a better understanding of the country as a whole. It is safe to say that Paulson, who has visited China on a number of occasions and four in the capacity of US treasury secretary, is definitely one US official who knows China best, if not the most sympathetic one.

Each of his visits has had some particular meaning. For example, his most frequently visited place in China has been Zhejiang Province. In his eyes, the province enjoys a flourishing private economy and the local government is relatively incorruptible, which signals the direction in which China should develop in the future.

An important aspect of Paulson's China outlook, therefore, is to urge the nation to shift the model of economic growth. This is also an important factor in the United States' China-related economic strategy.

The fact that the focus of Paulson's current visit is Qinghai, demonstrates that the US government is beginning to treat China's environmental issues as one of the priorities in its China economic strategy, which basically tallies with the US public's concerns - China's environmental pollution and the safety of Chinese-made products.

To a certain extent, Paulson's concerns about issues in China are the concerns of China itself. Environmental pollution, for instance, has become a factor largely arresting China's sustainable development and tarnishing the nation's image abroad. If handled poorly, the country's environmental pollution could send a negative impact on global climate.

It is against this backdrop that China and the United States have stepped up environmental cooperation. A number of factors should be taken into account in conducting bilateral environmental cooperation.

First, environmental issues should be viewed from the perspective of enhancing bilateral strategic mutual trust and widening the scope of mutual development.

China-US relations have remained stable over the last six years since September 2001. However, strategic mutual trust between the two sides remains inadequate, which means that the long-term stability of the bilateral ties is still on shaky grounds.

Finding agreement on "low political issues" can facilitate the enhancement of mutual trust.

Second, environmental cooperation should be immune from the influences of politics and ideology. In so far as China is concerned, the country should face up squarely to the stark reality of the deteriorating environment and, therefore, cooperate earnestly with advanced nations, including the United States.

On the part of the United States, it should "think big", in Paulson's words, and view bilateral environmental cooperation against the big picture of US-China relations as a whole, and global economic stability. The United States needs to do away with technological barriers against China and reduce ideological prejudices in its dealings with China.

Third, bilateral environmental cooperation does not have time on its side, it is imperative to see quick results. Apart from the fact that China and the United States share big responsibilities in global climate change and environmental damage, the food-safety problems evolving from environmental pollution are getting increasingly intensified. They could wreak severe damage to the Sino-US economic relationship. Accelerated bilateral environmental cooperation and its accomplishments can only bring positive results.

The author is a researcher with China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

(China Daily August 2, 2007)