Barack Obama looked great against the background of the Palace Museum's snow-covered golden roofs. In fact, he is the only US president to walk through the former imperial palace just after a snowfall.

Snow is a propitious sign in this agricultural country. It is a sign of a bumper harvest.

And like signs to a prosperous future, Chinese and US leaders promised each other a list of things in Beijing yesterday. The to-do list, part of a China-US joint statement, is long and goes far beyond just currency rates and human rights, two areas of easy-to-spot disagreements.

The joint statement is replete with agreements - from building bilateral strategic trust to bridge the age-old ideological divide to a shared responsibility for global recovery and the will to do more good things in the world. The list contains at least 40 items - from exchange of high-level military and space program officials and students to cooperation in counter-terrorism and making green cars. Officials of the two governments must have had to put in quite an effort just to discuss them before putting them in the document.

But then the more we talk, the more bilateral trust we build.

The most important points in the joint statement, however, are political. As China expresses its commitment to building a harmonious world of enduring peace and prosperity, the US welcomes a prosperous and successful China playing a greater role in world affairs. The US pledges to work with other countries in addressing the most difficult international problems. China commends the US as an Asian-Pacific nation that contributes to the regional peace and prosperity.

The two countries have agreed to build a fruitful relationship and a partnership to address common challenges, too.

The US said it is pleased with the peaceful developments between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan and looks forward to seeing the two sides holding more dialogues and interactions in economic, political and other fields and developing more positive and stable cross-Straits ties.

China and the US reaffirmed their commitment not to use strategic nuclear weapons against each other and agreed to promote the peaceful use of outer space.

If all the agreements fructify (and chances are they will), Obama's 2009 visit to China will set an example, showing the world how two great nations, with vastly different cultural backgrounds and historical experiences, can do a lot of good things together if they treat each other as equal partners.

But these good things are not restricted to the two countries' common interests and mutual assurance. The significance goes beyond the long list of actual things to do.

Negotiation in itself means peace. Working in partnership can create opportunities to let others join in and enlarge it.

And a more welcoming thing is that, about a quarter of the China-US to-do list contains things the two countries will do to mitigate climate change, and thus contribute to the world's green harvest.