Repeated failures, together with European countries' decision in 1998 not to co-sponsor a rights motion against China, prompted the US delegation to announce in 2005 that it would no longer make a similar move during the following sessions.

However, such a stance has not changed the US administration's finger pointing at China in its annual reports on the human rights conditions in other nations. The annual report has become the main saboteur of Sino-US relations.

The US has also sought a human rights dialogue with China even while exerting continual pressure on China. From 1990 to 2002, a total of 13 rounds of talks were held between the two countries on this issue.

The 14th round was held in Beijing in May 2008, in which the US delegation exhibited a positive tone towards China because of the huge advances made during the previous years towards a constructive cooperative partnership between the two countries.

At that dialogue, David Kramer, US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor praised China's progress in the field of human rights and commended highly Beijing's Wenchuan earthquake relief effort.

Over the past year, ever since the Obama administration has been at the helm, the US president and other administration officials have repeatedly stressed the importance of Sino-US relations and shown flexibility on the human rights issue.

The Obama administration's position is that mutual interest should override disputes between the two and that it would resort to dialogue to resolve bilateral disputes.

During a visit to Beijing in February, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed the Obama administration's concern over the human rights issue, but she also reiterated that the human rights concerns would not "interfere" with US' cooperation with China on other issues such as fighting climate change and reviving the global economy.

Clinton's stance is an extension of the new US approach, embodied in a joint declaration issued during Obama's visit to China in November. In that declaration, both sides recognized bilateral differences on human rights issues but also vowed to handle disputes in the spirit of equality and mutual respect.

It is hoped that the US will make the first step towards implementing this spirit in the upcoming two-day human rights dialogue and open a new horizon for bilateral talks on this issue.

The author is a researcher with the Center for China-US Relations under Tsinghua University.