China and the US must chip away at their trust deficit
He Yafei says collaboration on trade and conflict management, particularly in East Asia, is vital
The latest round of the US-China strategic and economic dialogue in Beijing witnessed a reaffirmation by presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama of their intention to build a new model of major power relations between China and the United States.
On economics, hope is rising as the two nations recommitted themselves to completing a bilateral investment treaty as early as possible. Yet the factors undermining trust still run deep.
Misperceptions about each other's strategic intentions are widespread and on the rise as East Asia's security problems pile up, something that worries countries both in and outside the region.
Most prominently, such concerns were driven home by the recent US move to end its decades-long policy of strategic ambiguity and explicitly endorse Japan's territorial claims to the Diaoyu Islands, as well as siding with the Philippines and Vietnam in their maritime disputes with China.
A case in point is the sharp remarks by the US defence secretary against China at the Shangri-La Dialogue last month, not to mention the latest provocative overflight by a US fighter jet only 200 metres from a Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea.
A "trust deficit" is gaining traction, in the face of fast-moving negotiations of two trade agreements promoted by the US - the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - that specifically exclude China, the world's second-largest economy.