U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue U.S. cabinet officials and agency heads participated making it one of the largest U.S. delegation to travel to a foreign country. As special representatives of President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan were joined by many high-level officials for the Economic Track. U.S. Participants: Chinese Participants: The third round the third round of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED) were held from May 9 to 10, 2011 in Washington, US. Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo who are special representatives of Chinese President Hu Jintao and
Zeng Qinghong Ju, Li Changchun, Luo Gan, and Zeng himself, were linked to Jiang's "Shanghai Clique" and considered his allies. As Jiang Zemin reached the end of his term, observers speculated that Jiang may well have preferred Zeng Qinghong over Hu Jintao as his successor. But Hu prevailed in succeeding Jiang, ostensibly because Hu was 'handpicked' by former leader Deng Xiaoping. Zeng became Vice-President in March 2003 at the National People's Congress held that year. During the SARS outbreak, Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao took very strong and assertive action while Zeng and other Jiang loyalists receded to the background. Zeng was