Better legacy from Clinton

US' China policy needs to be changed in the direction of increasing mutual trust and avoiding miscalculations

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just concluded her latest visit to China. It is also likely to be her last in her tenure as chief diplomat of Foggy Bottom under the Obama administration.

What is Clinton's legacy for Sino-US relations? As the chief US diplomat, she has helped President Barack Obama start the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue, or S&ED, an initiative that has brought the two countries' talks to a level higher than that under the previous Senior Dialogue and Strategic Economic Dialogue. The S&ED has been an important institutional means of developing the partnership that exists between Beijing and Washington. The two countries have not only used an annual review of the S&ED to plan a whole spectrum of economic, trade, strategy and security issues, but have also taken to cooperating in a more evenhanded way.