中美政党高层举行对话

This year's session is the eighth high-level party leaders dialogue between China and the United States.

Ma Hui with the International Department of the CPC Central Committee says both sides have been focusing on stamping out corruption.

"The talks have been centered on the rule of law and the future development of China and the United States. We outlined China's current drive to comprehensively advance the law-based governance, including the fight against corruption. The US side is quite interested and briefed us some of their measures on how to combat and prevent corruption."

China and the U.S. signed an Anti-Corruption Declaration during the APEC summit in Beijing in November.

Last month, the two sides also agreed to beef-up cooperation on capturing and repatriating corrupt officials.

Former US trade representative Ron Kirk, who is leading the US Democratic Party delegation, says the repatriation of criminals is an issue both sides can agree on.

"That is an item that is directly the responsibility of our incumbent governments. So I don't think you will find any disagreement whether from the Democratic or the Republican representatives here today in terms of the role of our governments to responsibly assist one another in combating corruption."

Kirk says the party-to-party meetings is not meant to try to prove the correctness of the American or the Chinese models, but rather for the two sides to understand the strengths of their respective system.

For his part, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Jiarui, also says he believes the meetings enhance mutual understanding.

Bob Holden, Chairman of the MidWest US-China Association and former Missouri governor, says it is important for both sides to keep the lines of communication open.

"I don't know anybody, any other organization that is having this caliber for interchanges. The foundation of both systems is relied on the people politically involved. So these are the people that we need to be talking to and listening to. Your political leaders of your culture and our political leaders of our culture can see each other as a partner in what they want to achieve. So we have much greater chance of having economic success as well as social stability. "

The two U.S. party delegations have also brought with them entrepreneurs and held a roundtable with their Chinese counterparts, discussing opportunities and challenges on doing business in each other's country.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the first China-US High Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue.

For CRI, I'm Qi Zhi.