Former US cabinet secretary Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan, has over the years seen her share of miscommunication and cultural misunderstanding in relations between China and the United States.

Chinese culture is one of subtlety, one that emphasizes humility and deference to the group, while America stresses individual achievement, Chao recently told 150 Chinese graduate students from US universities.

"What is required is an exchange like this," she said at a foreign-policy seminar in Washington hosted by the National Committee on United States-China Relations.

Chao, who served as US labor secretary through George W. Bush's presidency, offers that wish for this week's two-day meeting in California between presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama.

"As both countries ponder how to build a new relationship," Chao said, "the most fundamental point is how to build trust between the two countries, whose history, experiences and culture can be so different and so quickly and unintentionally lead to miscommunications and misunderstanding."

Xi's expressed desire for a "new type of great-power relationship" with the US has already sparked much discussion, she said.

Chao, the first Asian-American woman and the first Chinese-American cabinet secretary, described the summit on Friday and Saturday as a "historic occasion, in what is the first informal, casual gathering of presidents of two great nations".

In Chao's view, China has shown goodwill ahead of the presidential summit, helping establish a positive atmosphere for the meeting.

"China has given the United States a great gift, and that is to emphasize to the leader of North Korea to resume talks over his country's growing nuclear weapon program," she said. "So we hope that this is a gesture that Americans will recognize and understand."

Chao, 60, said the bilateral agenda has changed dramatically in recent years. Issues such as human and labor rights, though still important, have given way to discussions over Iran, North Korea, territorial disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea, cyber security, the role of China's state-owned enterprises and US technology exports.

Acknowledging frictions in China-US trade, Chao said tit-for-tat retaliation isn't productive. She described the bad experiences that some major companies have had in each other's countries as "fundamentally" the result of a lack of trust and communication.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 06/06/2013 page9)