From International Herald Tribune:
In three days of talks on economic issues, a half dozen Bush administration cabinet members and their aides sat in rows of tables facing their Chinese counterparts this week in an ornate conference room. The talk was polite, the atmosphere convivial and the pledges of cooperation profuse.
But it was also obvious to the American side that relations with China were going through a difficult phase, with discord sometimes crowding out the areas of agreement, as Chinese threatened retaliations over U.S. actions that displease them. The irritations are not just in the economic sphere but in the military and political sphere as well. [Full Text]
