The U.S. and China will have no trouble filling the agenda as they meet this week for their seventh Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The challenge will be finding topics on which they can agree.

The world's two largest economies started talks Monday in Washington on issues from trade to terrorism. The meeting takes place amid tensions over U.S. attempts to complete an Asia- Pacific trade pact that excludes Beijing, China's efforts to establish alternate financial institutions, and a cybertheft of U.S. government workers' data revealed this month, which U.S. officials say originated in China.

"There's quite a list this year of U.S. somewhat petulant, even acrimonious, complaints about China," said Chas Freeman, a former diplomat who served as the principal translator for President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China.