I had just arrived in Washington when the news broke that Osama bin Laden had been killed. I went immediately to the street in front of the White House, where a jubilant crowd was celebrating. Culture shock would be an understatement.

But despite the breaking news and the reports on the destructive tornados in the south of the country, there was still a steady stream of news and discussion about China here, especially among academics in the US capital.

On April 25, I watched a forum on C-Span in which three leading US China experts, including David Shambaugh, elaborated on different "factions" in China, their influence on the formulation of the country's foreign policy, and their relations with China's neighbors and the United States.

This week, two events were organized as a run-up to the 3rd China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue, with major players - US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke - discussing the US agenda.

On Tuesday, Kevin Rudd, currently minister for foreign affairs and former prime minister of Australia, gave a keynote speech on the rise of Asia at the Brookings Institution. He devoted nearly half of his speech to the rise of China and its effect on the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

David Shambaugh, professor and director of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, is a recognized authority on Chinese domestic politics. In his most recent article in The Washington Quarterly, "Coping with a Conflicting China", he tries to unravel what he terms "extensive, animated, and diverse domestic discourse about its (China's) roles as a major rising power".

Officials like Geithner and Rudd have had first-hand experience in China. In the early 1980s, Geithner studied Chinese in Beijing, while Rudd served as a junior Australian diplomat in China.

No wonder Rudd was forthcoming about how China views itself and its priorities of maintaining national unity, continuing economic growth, and improving its environment.

Geithner talked about the "formidable" challenges China faces, since it is still in an early stage of transition to a market economy. He noted that China is still concerned about the forces trying to weaken and contain it, even though it is becoming more confident in its role as the world's second largest economy.

However, as Bruce Jones, director of the Managing Global Order project at the Brookings Institution, pointed out, all this discourse, including the upcoming China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue, is conducted among experts.

Politicians and the public in the US still exhibit a significant lack of understanding about China, Jones said. There is also a significant lack of understanding about the US in China, he added.

A business reporter from the Financial Times told me that recent Chinese failures in mergers and acquisitions in the US were largely self-induced. There were instances where the Chinese didn't follow the rules. In some cases, the Chinese started bidding after the deal had already been made; in others, the Chinese didn't know how to communicate with the public, failing to answer questions raised by local politicians and the public.

What can China and the US do to alleviate such misunderstandings?

Geithner said both sides must be "direct with each other about where we have tensions and (where) our interests and conflicts can be resolved."

From Australia's point of view, Rudd said it is important to forge a "true friendship" with China, free from the "cold war paradigm". The notions of "pro-China or anti-China" should be "consigned to history", he added; people should draw inspiration from Chinese tradition and focus on the positive.

Rome was not built in a day. China and the US will not learn to understand each other overnight. Still, it is heartening to see how much time and effort is spent trying.

The author is Assistant Editor-in-Chief of China Daily. E-mail: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/06/2011 page8)