Full coverage: 8th China-U.S. S&ED & 7th CPE

China and the United States will hold their eighth round of strategic and economic dialogue in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday, exchanging views on relations and other issues of common concern. US State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, set a positive tone at a news briefing ahead of the event.

"It's a very effective mechanism, and any time when you can get senior members of the Chinese government and the US  government to sit down and talk about the issues that bind us, it's effective and it's important. And it’s an opportunity for us to sit down with our Chinese counterparts on both the security realm, economic realm, and really talk about, as I said, the breadth of issues that we jointly focus on. The U.S.-China relationship is incredibly significant and incredibly important, strategically to both countries, and to the region.

We've seen this in so many regards, including on COP 21, our climate change agreement, where we can cooperate effectively with China. We saw it with the JCPOA and the Iran nuclear deal, where, when we find areas of commonality and common purpose with China, we can also accomplish great things," he said.