This is all puzzling for Chinese. For example, while Donilon called for the resumption of the China-US cyber working group talks, he did not address the fact that the suspension was caused by the irrational US behavior of groundlessly indicting five People's Liberation Army officers for cyber espionage in May. China has refrained from seeking revenge, such as drawing up a most wanted list of five US National Security Agency officials.

The US National Security Agency owes not just China, but the whole world an explanation about what kind of cyber invasion it has waged on other countries without their knowledge thanks to the US technological edge.

Donilon was right when he said that the two countries should work together on concrete cooperation projects in order to give definition and content to the new type of major-power relations Xi and Obama agreed on last year.

The US should focus on working with China, instead of lecturing China and telling China what to do. Obama should not let his bad mood steer his Asia trip in the wrong direction.

The author, based in Washington, is deputy editor of China Daily USA. [email protected]

(China Daily 11/07/2014 page9)