On the afternoon of December 15, 2006, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with US Secretary of Treasury and President George Bush's Special Representative Henry Paulson and other US delegates visiting China for the First China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue in the Great Hall of the People.

Hu commented positively on the current China-US relationship and congratulated on the success of the first dialogue. While talking about the economic and trade relationship between China and the United States, Hu said that it is one of the fastest growing and one of the most important economic and trade relationships in the world. In the context of accelerated economic globalization, the economic and trade relationship between China and the US is getting closer and closer and the economic and trade cooperation covers wider and wider areas. On the one hand, both sides should keep such momentum growing in the spirit of mutual benefits, win-win cooperation and common development; on the other hand, we should take an active attitude to handle the problems emerging in our economic and trade cooperation through frank dialogues and friendly consultations in a bid to advance the economic and trade cooperation at a higher level and from wider areas and create a brighter future for our economic and trade relationship.

While speaking of the dialogue, Hu said that the dialogue not only deepens our mutual understanding but also offers a new opportunity for further cooperation. It will not only be conducive to the continuous development of our economic and trade cooperation but also exert positive influence over the steady growth of regional and global economy. Hu said that the dialogue was just launched and there is still a lot of work to do. I hope that both sides could make good use of the new platform, summarize lessons and experience, strengthen communication and coordination, and make this mechanism better and better in a bid to make greater contribution to the development of China-US constructive and cooperative relations in an all-round manner.

Paulson indicated that since President Bush and President Hu decided to establish a strategic economic dialogue, both sides have done tremendous preparations. Substantial progress has been made with the first dialogue, which is of long-term significance. The institutionalization of the dialogue will further strengthen the economic and trade relations between the United States and China. The US side will continue to work for the development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and strengthen cooperation with China in the fields of energy security and efficiency, environmental protection, market opening, medicine and health, intellectual property rights protection, and advancing the Doha round of negations.

Top Chinese and US officials present at the meeting included Vice Premier Wu Yi of the State Council, Minister of Finance Jin Renqing, Ma Kai, Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guanhua, Minister of Labor and Social Security Tian Chengping, Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun, Minister of Communications Li Shenglin, Minister of Information Industry Wang Xudong, Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai, Minister of Health Gao Qiang, Governor of the People's Bank of China Zhou Xiaochuan, Minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) Li Changjiang, and Administrator of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) Zhou Shengxian on the Chinese side, and Secretary of Health and Public Services Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman, Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Trade Representative Susan Schwab, and Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Stephen Johnson on the US side.