A positive sign from the June no-necktie summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama in Sunnylands, California, is the tone they set for building a new type of relationship between major powers, one that demands they work together to widen cooperation and narrow differences.

Although that proposal still calls for more content, you could almost hear and feel that message throughout the fifth round of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington last week, when senior officials from both sides gathered to discuss a wide range of thorny issues.

It was in sharp contrast to the rhetoric last year when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made a number of "Day One" vows about getting tough with China - Obama following suit with some harsh words of his own.