The Tie That Binds.docVIP

The Tie That Binds 　　During the recently closed fourth Nuclear Security Summit （NSS） held in Washington， D.C.， Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart， Barack Obama， had their first meeting of 2016. It was the eighth one-on-one meeting of the two presidents in the three years since Xi took office. It was also reported to be the only bilateral meeting Obama held during this year’s summit. 　　The top leaders of the two countries are also expected to meet for a dialogue session again this September in Hangzhou， when China hosts the Group of 20， or G20， summit. 　　The high frequency of top-level communication is seemingly an indication that Sino-U.S. ties are now one of the most critical relationships among world powers. 　　Such a link is determined not only by their close economic ties， but also their global political and economic status， as they are respectively the world’s sole superpower and the most promising emerging economy. 　　A set of figures demonstrates this relationship’s dynamism clearly. Data released in February by the U.S. Department of Commerce indicated that the China-U.S. bilateral goods trade volume reached $598.1 billion in 2015， with China surpassing Canada as the United States’ largest trading partner for the first time. According to statistics released by China’s Ministry of Commerce， the United States is now China’s second largest trading partner after the European Union. Chinese enterprises made $46.6 billion in direct investments in the United States by the end of last year， making the Western power the fourth largest receiver of China’s outward investment. The ministry also estimated that bilateral trade will exceed $1 trillion by 2024. 　　Extended interdependence and tightened economic integration are two prominent features of China-U.S. relations. As the saying goes “there was a little bit of me in you and a little bit of you in me.”Therefore， high frequency of contact between government officials is needed now more than