Amid the global financial crisis, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a business conference this month, "Confidence is more important than gold and currency."

China, one of the United States largest creditors, has plenty of assets, and as its delegation heads to the Group of 20 Summit, confidence is certainly among them.

"China really is emerging out of this crisis stronger in relative terms," said Christopher McNally, an expert on the Chinese economy at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

"One thing is very clear," said Thomas Rawski, a University of Pittsburgh scholar who has chronicled the dramatic transformation of the economy in recent decades. "The financial crisis has elevated China's position in all of these economic forums ... that was going to happen anyway, but the financial crisis accelerated that process."

While its economy is still significantly smaller than that of the United States, China heads to the summit poised to overtake Japan as the world's second-largest national economy. It was battered by the global slump and hurt particularly by the erosion of the export markets on which its economy is dependent, but it has bounced back from its slump faster than any other major economy.

At least in the short term, Dr. McNally said, "The Chinese system proved to be more flexible and nimble, [resulting in] a V-shaped and not very deep recession."

The strength of a nation that became a significant player in the world economy only three decades ago is such that some experts have suggested a new economic grouping, dropping the last digit from G-20.

In testimony before the U.S. House earlier this month, C. Fred Bergsten, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, reiterated his call for the United States and China to move toward the creation of a still more exclusive club -- "an informal G-2 that could provide effective joint leadership of the world economy."

In a world of delicate diplomatic sensibilities, neither nation seems likely to embrace the G-2 title, but they have demonstrated a commitment to closer cooperation in the so-called Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a series of high-level, but publicly low-key conversations in Washington in late July, hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

A statement after the meeting said, "... at a time of continued challenges in international financial markets, and when the international situation is undergoing complex and profound changes, the United States and China share ever more important responsibilities, extensive common interests, and a broader basis for cooperation."

After their meeting in Pittsburgh this week, President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao will not have to wait long before seeing one another again. Mr. Obama is traveling to China in mid-November for more talks with the Chinese leadership.

Mr. Geithner's predecessor, Henry Paulsen, also stressed the increasing importance of U.S.-China ties. But Mr. McNally observed that the tone of the relationship had changed.

"In the first part of the Paulsen era, you had the United States very much lecturing the Chinese," he said. " 'You need to open your financial markets; you have to increase consumption; you have to raise the value of the yuan.' "

While the Obama administration had made gestures toward a shift in tone in the ties between the largest and the richest countries, Mr. Rawski said, it remained to be seen whether "a more coherent policy" would emerge.

Though both have expressed the determination to change their relationship, China and the United States remain for the foreseeable future in a sometimes uncomfortable embrace as co-enablers of some of the excesses of each other's economy.

China remains among the largest purchasers of the bonds financing a U.S. deficit that seems unlikely to come down any time soon. The U.S. appetite for cheap Chinese exports was reduced but certainly not eliminated by the downturn. Some experts believe that China's recovery could be hobbled without a sustained path of exports to the United States.

The result is, "They're kind of in a dollar trap," said Mr. McNally.

The Chinese have voiced concern about the exposure to potential U.S. inflation that would drive down the value of their vast store of dollar-denominated assets. But they face a financial Catch-22 in that a major effort to sell dollars or otherwise diversify away from reliance on the U.S. currency runs the risk of itself causing a self-defeating fall in the value of the dollars they own.

Some Chinese officials made noises earlier this year about the desirability of moving away from the dollar as the world's reserve currency. In recent months, with no practical replacement for the dollar in sight, such talk has receded. Mr. McNally said, however, that the Chinese will take one baby step toward a longer-term effort to enhance the international role of their own currency with a Yuan-denominated bond sale in Hong Kong on Sept. 26, the day after the close of the Pittsburgh summit.

China's relative success in coping with the world financial crisis was based in part on a significant central government stimulus package. The spending from that measure flowed much more quickly than that launched by the parallel stimulus crafted by Congress.

In addition, state-owned and -controlled banks in China were able to boost the economy with liberalized lending at a time when newly cautious Western banks were tightening their borrowing requirements.

"The Chinese were very quick," said Dr. Rawski. "... our stimulus program was more of a political program and the funds are dribbling out much more slowly."

Mr. Wen, the premier, said in his Sept.10 speech to a world business forum in Dalian, China, that the program included measures "on a trial basis" to institute old-age pensions, as well as spending designed to make health care more affordable. One of the reasons that China has been frustrated in spurring domestic consumption is a high savings rate motivated by the lack of a social safety net in the nation's economy.

Mr. Rawski said that he was skeptical that Chinese consumers would change their savings habits any time soon.

"I'm guessing that Chinese households will find it difficult to be confident that they can rely on the state to pay a larger share of retirement, health care and education," he said. "That frame of mind may well change, but over a considerable period of time."

On climate change -- a key item on the Pittsburgh agenda -- Mr. Wen professed a strong Chinese commitment, but his speech suggested its limits.

Citing the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities," Mr. Wen, whose nation along with the United States is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, said: "Developed countries should recognize their historical responsibility as well as their high per capita emissions, substantially cut greenhouse gas emissions, and extend financial, technological and capacity-building support to developing countries in their effort to tackle climate change."

In Washington and in London over the last year, the G-20 leaders have affirmed their intentions to avoid protectionism in world trade, yet almost all of their nations have adopted some instances of protectionist policies since the financial crisis began.

This month, Mr. Obama announced tariffs on Chinese tire imports in response to a "surge" in their presence in the American market. That move was legal under World Trade Organization rules and accords signed by the Chinese.

Beijing nonetheless criticized it as protectionist and threatened to retaliate against U.S. products, including chicken and auto parts. Despite that threat, the exchange stirred domestic opposition to the Chinese government.

"What you saw was a huge upsurge on the Web and in blogs, basically scolding the Chinese government for being weak," Mr. McNally observed.