Two words sum up Sino-American ties in 2007: stable and  omplicated.

The word "stable" means that although disputes between the two existed last year, they kept open channels of information exchange and communicated well on important issues.

Considering stability, the relationship between China and the United States matured in 2007. But the complexity of their ties has been mounting over the past years. Some uncertain elements in their bilateral relations grew more intense last year.

Mature and stable relations

The maturity of the link between China and the United States can be proved in two aspects: First, the two countries are both getting used to combining their disputes and cooperation and learning how to coexist with conflicts. In early 2007, some unfriendly tones rose from the U.S. side, which exaggerated the trade imbalance between the two countries. Some Americans overstated intellectual property rights protection, the yuan's exchange rate, food safety issues and China's market access. They called upon trade protectionism and threatened trade sanctions at every turn.

In the meantime, the U. S. Congress prohibited China's Huawei Technologies Co. from purchasing 3Com Corp., in the name of national security. On the Taiwan question and the issue of Tibet, the U.S. Government took some wrong steps, such as selling advanced weapons to Taiwan, U.S. President George W. Bush's meeting with the Dalai Lama and Congress issuing the "exiled religious leader" the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award bestowed by the American legislature. These moves inevitably damaged bilateral relations.

Some U.S. celebrities and non-governmental organizations intended to force China to give in on some issues by threatening to boycott the Beijing Olympic Games to be held in August 2008. This seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. Furthermore, the U.S. media again and again overestimated threats from Chinese computer hackers. In addition, China launched an anti-satellite space test on January 9, 2007. In November the same year, China initially denied the American aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk permission to dock in Hong Kong. U.S. Government, think tanks and the American press criticized China about these incidents. The Chinese side says the criticism is groundless.

All these disputes and conflicts did not block the stable development of bilateral trade and economic relations between China and the United States. It was estimated that their bilateral trade volume would exceed $300 billion in 2007, and the growth rate of U.S. exports to China would reach 35 percent of the total export volume, which would be the fastest growing part of American exports.

Military exchanges between the two countries deepened as well. China and the United States set up regular visits between high-level officials and fleets. The highlight came in October 2007 when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited China and the two sides agreed to set up a military hotline between their respective defense departments as an attempt to strengthen their mutual military trust.

China and the United States also maintained their consultations and coordination on important international and regional issues, the results of which were encouraging. They continued to work together on settling the North Korean nuclear issue through diplomacy under the framework of six-party talks, which moved the issue in a positive direction. They also cooperated on resolving the Darfur conflict, stabilizing Myanmar and helping Pakistan to combat extremists and terrorists.