Commentary: Complex global challenges call for closer China-U.S. cooperation

Frequent fluctuations in the financial and currency markets, increasing security concerns and volatile conditions in certain parts of the world all call for closer cooperation between China and the United States.

A recent devaluation of the Chinese currency, the renminbi (RMB) or yuan, against the U.S. dollar has led to accusations that China was doing so to prop up its exports.

Some even talked about a currency war between China and the United States, the two biggest economies in the world.

However, as China had promised, the yuan quickly stabilized. The world will see for itself that the move is very much in the direction to increase the role of market forces in determining the RMB exchange rate.

The world markets have just come out of a "Black Monday" rout amid accumulated anxiety over world economic prospects.

In fact, global economic recovery is still weak and uneven. Though the United States and Europe are already on the road to recovery, the growth momentum has been far from strong.

Meanwhile, volatile conditions in the Mideast and the Korean Peninsula and unsettled territorial disputes and historical issues in certain parts of the world continue to threaten world peace and prosperity.

South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) were on the brink of war last week as the two sides exchanged artillery fires over the South's psychological warfare with loudspeakers in border areas.

Although a six-point agreement was reached after 43 hours of marathon talks, the world is keeping a close eye on the Korean Peninsula, which is constantly making headlines.

In neighboring Japan, a government declining a meaningful apology for its war-time atrocities has garnered a lot of dislike among Asian countries as the world celebrates the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Further south, the Philippines asked the United States to provide military "assistance" in resupplying and rotating Manila's forces in the South China Sea only two days prior to U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice's visit to China on Friday and Saturday.

Rice's visit to China will underscore the U.S. commitment to building "a more productive relationship" with China prior to Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States next month, Ned Price, spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said Tuesday.

"Areas of difference" will be discussed during Rice's Beijing visit,Price said.

Despite thorny issues that often dominate the headlines, China and the United States are working closely on almost every major global issue, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said.

Even on controversial issues, Cui said, cooperation instead of confrontation is key to finding solutions.

Building on the good will for cooperation, the two countries could work together to find solutions to every thorny issue, not only trade frictions and currency conflicts, but also pressing environmental issues, the nuclear challenge and poverty elimination in Africa and elsewhere.

Better cooperation between China and the United States will serve the "fundamental interest of both countries" and fulfill their "shared responsibilities to the world," the ambassador said. Endi