China and the United States still needed "Feng Yu Tong Zhou" -- the Chinese idiom meaning "to stand together regardless of situation", U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday.

Geithner first used the phrase at the first round of U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) held here last July. He told Xinhua in an exclusive interview before his visit to Beijing for the second round on May 24-25 that it still held true in the face of the ups and downs in the bilateral relationship over the past year and the changing global situation.

Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will lead a group of 16 heads of U.S. government agencies to meet their Chinese counterparts for the annual bilateral talks.

"The relationship with China is very strong on all fronts," Geithner said. "I think that both countries have played enormously important roles in trying to lift the global economy away from financial crisis."

During the Beijing talks, the Obama administration's economic leaders will exchange views with their Chinese counterparts on four key areas, including promotion of trade and investment cooperation, strong recovery and more balanced growth, a resilient financial system, and strengthening of the international financial and economic architecture.