PRC President Hu Jintao visits the USA

Knock yourself out

Bltizo said:

If I may be so blunt, can I ask what some of our American or Western members think of China? Or rather, do people think the assessment of the articles that Kyli posted are accurate (of the American fear/anxiety over PRC)?

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As an American, I'm pretty accepting of the rise of China. I think trying to stop China from running its natural course in history is like trying to build an everlasting sandcastle; you can keep trying, but the ocean will wash it away eventually. I don't believe that the rise of China is necessarily a bad thing for America or the world. It's just one of those big historical forces.

With that said, I don't believe that America should be deferential to China, or that we should compromise our important interests one bit. The relationship between America and China should be like, if you'll bear with me here, that between two crime bosses you often see in the movies. They don't like each other and they talk a lot of trash, but they realize that they'll have easier lives if they cooperate, meet every once in a while to talk out issues and find ways to do business. If America realizes that its moving past the point where it is necessary/able to be the dominant power in all areas, and if China is willing to eventually cooperate with America on currency, climate and maybe Iran, I think China and America will be able to get along just fine.

Regarding why Hu doesn't have his own plane... Anybody remember the American company outfitting Jiang Zemin's personal Boeing who let the CIA on board to plant bugs? Airbus is out the question too. I read once that plane was sitting by itself in an isloated part of an airfield somewhere stripped down to a skeleton. Probably melted down into scrap by now after it was said China salvaged some of the most sophisticated satellite surveillance devices around. So you probably won't see the leader of China with a personal plane until China domestically produces one.

Finn McCool said:

The relationship between America and China should be like, if you'll bear with me here, that between two crime bosses you often see in the movies. They don't like each other and they talk a lot of trash, but they realize that they'll have easier lives if they cooperate, meet every once in a while to talk out issues and find ways to do business. .

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Love your analogy but Barack Corleone can't get the co-operation of all the crime bosses. One of the bosses, the speaker of the house John Gambino has declined the invitation for the state function.

Wary Powers Set to Square Off



By LORETTA CHAO, JASON DEAN and BOB DAVIS

China's President Hu Jintao landed in Washington for a summit that will help to define a new relationship between the world's longtime superpower and its rising Asian rival, at a time when their bonds have been frayed by mutual suspicions and an ideological gulf.

Since Mr. Hu last visited the White House in 2006, his country's influence has surged and its relationship with the U.S. is now widely recognized as the world's most important bilateral matchup. In some ways ties have strengthened—as in the growing trade and business evident in a series of big commercial deals signed this week. But the two also seem increasingly buffeted by disagreements including Beijing's handling of North Korea, China's own military expansion, its exchange-rate policies and its treatment of foreign businesses.

Mr. Hu's arrival—for China's first state visit to the U.S. since 1997—was accompanied by a Chinese advertising blitz meant to showcase its "soft power," using images of ordinary Chinese citizens and celebrities like NBA star Yao Ming, Web tycoon Jack Ma, and a quartet of fashion models in a minute-long ad. The Chinese video—to run on television and 300 times a day in New York's Times Square for a month—is aimed at showing Americans a different face of China. Rather than a rising rival accused of manipulating its currency and siphoning U.S. jobs, China's government wants Americans to think of sports stars, Internet entrepreneurs, and astronauts.

The Obama administration also has been pressing China to make big investments and splashy joint ventures as a way to demonstrate concrete achievements. On Tuesday, it orchestrated a series of energy-related announcements by U.S. and Chinese business leaders intended to show the upside of working together.

Also, as Mr. Hu arrived, documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal showed that a Chinese firm has agreed to invest $2 billion in a North Korean industrial zone, challenging U.S. policy isolating North Korea and serving as a reminder of the potential limits of Chinese cooperation there. Beijing suggested Tuesday the U.S. needs to remove barriers to Chinese companies' investment, even as a survey of U.S. businesses in Shanghai underlined corporate anxiety about lack of a level playing field in China.

Mr. Hu, in responses this week to questions from The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, suggested he wanted to move past such tensions with the U.S. where possible. "The strategic significance and global impact of China-U.S. relations have been on the rise," Mr. Hu wrote. "We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship, and lose from confrontation."

Mr. Hu landed on late Tuesday afternoon at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on an Air China Boeing 747. He walked off the airplane in a black-collared coat, was greeted by Vice President Joe Biden, hugged a small boy and shook a few hands. The Chinese president was scheduled to dine Tuesday night with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton among others. Separately, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was expected to dine with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Qishan.

On Wednesday, the two presidents were to meet again and then join business leaders from Microsoft Corp., General Electric Co. and Boeing Co., among other firms, near the White House. More deals are expected to be announced.

The White House hopes the visit will establish the groundwork for deeper relations. Meanwhile, China's advertising blast is part of a broader push by Beijing to try to put the relationship in human terms and highlight its culture and people to ease fears about its rise.

That use of "soft power"—as scholars describe it, in contrast to the hard power afforded by economic, geopolitical and military clout—will also be highlighted during Mr. Hu's next stop in Chicago on Thursday. He'll visit a Chinese government-sponsored language-learning center at a Chicago high school, part of a global network of so-called Confucius Institutes designed to spread the use of Mandarin.

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Zuma Press

Footage promoting China is shown on the screens at New York's Times Square on Monday.
China's government was long neglectful of its image overseas, but in recent years it has invested billions of dollars to promote its viewpoints and polish its reputation. Chinese state-run media companies are expanding overseas as well. China Daily, the government English-language newspaper, launched a U.S. edition in 2009. Xinhua news agency started an English-language TV news service last year, and state broadcaster China Central Television recently announced a new English-language documentary channel that will showcase films about China for foreign audiences.

Those efforts come as China's policies and actions are coming under increasing international scrutiny, including its handling of deadly antigovernment riots in Tibet in 2008 and the 11-year prison sentence it gave dissident Liu Xiaobo, who as awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in absentia at a December ceremony.

The image push has expanded enormously in just the five years since Mr. Hu last visited. For instance, China had fewer than 10 Confucius Institutes in the U.S. that year. Today, there are more than 100 institutes and similar Confucius Classrooms in the U.S., and hundreds more in other countries. They are sponsored, and partly funded, by an arm of China's Ministry of Education called the Hanban, which cooperates with schools and universities around the world.

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U.S. Seals Energy Deals as Hu Arrives for Visit Hu's Feel-Good Tour of U.S. Is Likely to Be a Bit Chilly But like so much in China, the soft-power push is led by the government, and it is unclear how much impact it is having wooing U.S. hearts and minds. A survey of 1,503 Americans by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 58% want to build a stronger relationship with China, but 65% see China as either an "adversary" or a "serious problem."

Marketing experts say the state-led soft-power approach has its limits. While Beijing clearly recognizes the value of soft power, it should promote things "which are happening culturally and spontaneously" within the country, such as its vibrant art scene, says Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Chief Executive Miles Young. He says South Korea and Japan have gained global cultural influence by embracing contemporary, ground-up cultural developments in addition to government-led initiatives.

The Times Square ad was ordered up by China's State Council Information Office and produced by ad agency Shanghai Lintas Advertising. Chinese officials couldn't be reached and Lintas Advertising declined to comment.

Finn McCool said:

As an American, I'm pretty accepting of the rise of China. I think trying to stop China from running its natural course in history is like trying to build an everlasting sandcastle; you can keep trying, but the ocean will wash it away eventually. I don't believe that the rise of China is necessarily a bad thing for America or the world. It's just one of those big historical forces.

With that said, I don't believe that America should be deferential to China, or that we should compromise our important interests one bit. The relationship between America and China should be like, if you'll bear with me here, that between two crime bosses you often see in the movies. They don't like each other and they talk a lot of trash, but they realize that they'll have easier lives if they cooperate, meet every once in a while to talk out issues and find ways to do business. If America realizes that its moving past the point where it is necessary/able to be the dominant power in all areas, and if China is willing to eventually cooperate with America on currency, climate and maybe Iran, I think China and America will be able to get along just fine.

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Well put and fair -- I agree with all your points, though I haven't seen those types of movies you make reference to but I get the gist of it.
Hopefully they'll sort things out sooner rather than later.

Well, there are reports with various slants on this visit depending on which news agency it comes from, which really isn't surprising. All media does this for their own, sometimes propaganda, purposes (including PRC's media).

Nonetheless, here's a report that talks about what's at stake:

Hu's visit will lay basis for next 30 years: Obama
Posted: 19 January 2011 2237 hrs

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said Wednesday a visit by his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao would lay the basis for future ties, saying the two nations had an "enormous stake" in each other's success.

"With this visit we can lay the foundation for the next 30 years," Obama said as he welcomed Hu to the White House.

"We have an enormous stake in each other's success. In an interconnected world, in a global economy, nations including our own will be more prosperous and more secure when we work together," he told a ceremony.

Hu in return said that since Obama took office "our cooperation in various fields has produced fruitful results and our relations have achieved new progress."

Obama however did stray into one of the areas of contention between the two nations, that of human rights.

"History shows that societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all people are upheld," Obama said.

- AFP/ir

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Obama, Hu spar over human rights, hail economic ties

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON and JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Matthew Pennington And Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press – 47 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao sparred over human rights on Wednesday, with Obama declaring that Americans believe such rights are among "core views" and Hu declaring China had made progress but "a lot still needs to be done" to improve his country's record.

The concern over human rights was balanced against U.S. happiness about what Obama said was $45 billion in expected new export sales for the U.S. because of business deals with China cemented by the summit meeting of the world's two largest economies. Obama said those deals would help create 235,000 U.S. jobs.

"I absolutely believe China's peaceful rise is good for the world, and it's good for America," Obama said, addressing a major concern in Beijing that the United States wants to see China's growth constrained.
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"We welcome China's rights. We just want to make sure that (its) rise occurs in a way that reinforces international norms, international rules, and enhances security and peace as opposed to it being a source of conflict either in the region or around the world."

The two leaders vowed closer cooperation on critical issues ranging from increasing trade to fighting terrorism. But they also stood fast on differences, especially over human rights.

Obama acknowledged that differences on rights were "an occasional source of tension between our two governments."

He said at a joint news conference with Hu at the White House, "We have some core views as Americans about the universality of certain rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly."

Obama said he drove that home forcefully in his discussions with the Chinese leader, but "that doesn't prevent us from cooperating in these other critical areas."

For Hu's part, he at first didn't respond to an American reporter's question on human rights differences between the two countries. Pressed about it in a later question, he said technical difficulties in translation had prevented him from hearing the question.

Hu said that each of his meetings with Obama — eight including Wednesday's — the rights issue had been raised.

"China is always committed to the protection and promotion of human rights," Hu said.

He said that China had "made enormous progress" in its practices.

"China recognizes and also respects the universality of human rights," he said. "It recognizes and also respects the universality of human rights. At the same time, we need to take into account the different national circumstances. China is a developing country with a huge population, and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform."

China "faces many challenges in social and economic development. A lot still needs to be done in China on human rights," the Chinese president and Communist Party leader said.

He said that while China "is willing to engage in dialogue" with the U.S. and other nations on human rights issues, countries must exercise "the principle of noninterference in each other's internal affairs."

On another contentious issue, Obama said that the United States continues to believe that China's currency is undervalued, making Chinese imports cheaper in the United States and other countries and U.S. goods more expensive in China.

"I told President Hu that we welcomed China's increasing the flexibility of its currency," Obama said. But, he added, the yuan, also called the renminbi, "remains undervalued, that there needs to be further adjustment in the exchange rate, and that this can be a powerful tool for China boosting domestic demand and lessening the inflationary pressures in their economy."

In a sign of the growing economic bonds between the two superpowers, Obama said the countries had made business deals that would mean $45 billion in new U.S. exports. Obama also said China was taking significant steps to curtail the theft of intellectual property and expand U.S. investment.

Obama said China had become "one of the top markets for American exports" and that these exports have helped to support a half million U.S. jobs.

Hu said he and Obama had agreed to "share expanding common interests."

"We both agreed to further push forward the positive cooperative and comprehensive China-U.S. relationship and commit to work together to build a China-U.S. cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit, so as to better benefit people in our own countries and the world over," Hu said.

Hu, speaking through a translator, said both countries should "respect each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests."

Obama said, "I absolutely believe China's peaceful rise is good for the world, and it's good for America."

As both countries continue to recover from the global economic crisis — a recovery that began in China well before it did in the U.S. and other developed nations — the United States increasingly sees China as a market for its goods, Obama said.

"We want to sell you all kinds of stuff," Obama told Hu. "We want to sell you planes, we want to sell you cars, we want to sell you software. ...

"And as President Hu and his government refocuses the economy on expanding domestic demand, that offers opportunity for U.S. businesses that ultimately translates into jobs."

(This version CORRECTS 'sale' to 'sales' in 2nd paragraph)

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Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama shake hands with crowds at a welcoming ceremony at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, capital of the United States, Jan. 19, 2011. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

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Chinese President Hu Jintao speaks at a welcoming ceremony held by U.S. President Barack Obama on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, the United States, Jan. 19, 2011. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Wednesday that his state visit to the United States is aimed at increasing mutual trust, enhancing friendship, deepening cooperation and pushing forward the positive, cooperative and comprehensive China-U.S. relationship for the 21st century.

"I hope that through this visit, our two countries will advance the positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship and open a new chapter in our cooperation as partners," Hu said at a welcome ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.

Hu and U.S. President Barack Obama stood on a small stage with Chinese and U.S. flags as the national anthem of China, then U.S. national anthem being played.

Hu, who was greeted by Obama and his wife upon his arrival at the White House, was to hold talks with Obama shortly after the ceremony, the eighth meeting between the two leaders in two years.

The two leaders inspected the honor guard and then walked a short distance to shake hands with visitors.

The two presidents watched as a pipe and drum unit marched by dressed in colonial era uniforms. The unit played Yankee Doodle, among other selections.

Both countries "share broad common interests and important common responsibilities" and should adopt a long-term perspective and seek common ground while reserving differences, Hu told Obama.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were present at the ceremony.

The Chinese president's state visit was widely deemed as crucial for future development of relations between the two countries. As China's global influence mounts and profound changes reshape the world, China-U.S. relations bear far-reaching significance to the two countries and the world at large.

Hu has been welcomed with pomp-filled ceremonies since he stepped on American soil Tuesday.

He was greeted on arrival at Andrews Air Force Base Tuesday by Vice President Joe Biden, and a small private dinner with Obama followed at the White House in honor of the visiting Chinese leader.

An opulent state dinner, the grandest of White House soirees, was planned for Wednesday evening in Hu's honor.

The setting reflects the rising significance of the relationship between China, the world's largest developing country, and the United States, the world's largest developed nation.

"Our cooperation as partners should be based on mutual respect...on mutual benefit," Hu said at the welcome ceremony.

China and the United States should respect each other's choice of development path and core interests, and seek to learn from each other through exchanges and achieve win-win progress through cooperation, Hu said.

Cooperation as partners between the two sides should also be based on joint efforts to meet challenges and the extensive involvement of the people, Hu added.

The Chinese president pointed out that to pursue peace, development and cooperation is the irresistible trend of our time.

Welcoming China's rise "as a strong, prosperous member" of the community of nations, Obama said the U.S. and China "have an enormous stake in each other's success."

"Nations including our own will be more prosperous and secure when we work together," Obama said.

"We learn from our people. Chinese students and educators, including the Chinese Americans here today, work together to make progress every day. We can cooperate in a spirit of mutual respect for our mutual benefit," Obama said.

During Hu's stay in the United States, Chinese officials said, Hu also was scheduled to meet people from various walks of life in the United States, and would take the opportunity to elaborate on China's domestic and foreign policies and on how to advance his country's ties with the United States in the new era.

The two countries were expected to sign a package of cooperation documents during Hu's visit and announce a host of new cooperation projects in a variety of sectors, including economy, trade, energy, environmental protection, infrastructure development, and science and technology.

The Obama administration has attached great importance to Hu's visit, emphasizing the rising importance of American cooperation with China.

"President Hu's visit will highlight the importance of expanding cooperation between the United States and China on bilateral, regional, and global issues, as well as the friendship between peoples of our two countries," the White House said in a statement when announcing the visit last month.

"The president looks forward to welcoming President Hu to Washington to continue building a partnership that advances our common interests and addresses our shared concerns," the statement said.

After their talks on Wednesday, Hu and Obama were to meet with U.S. and Chinese business leaders at the White House to discuss ways to expand trade and investment opportunities between China and the United States.

Since Obama took office two years ago, the overall development of China-U.S. relations has been stable despite some friction between the two countries.

Hu and Obama agreed to build a "positive, cooperative and comprehensive China-U.S. relationship for the 21st century" during their first meeting in London in April 2009.

In November 2009, Obama paid a state visit to China, during which the two sides reiterated that they were "committed to building a positive, cooperative and comprehensive China-U.S. relationship for the 21st century, and will take concrete actions to steadily build a partnership to address common challenges."

China and the United States are now each other's second largest trading partner. Two-way trade is expected to top 380 billion U.S. dollars in 2010. China has been the United States' fastest-growing major export market for nine consecutive years.

In a written interview with The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal Monday, Hu said: "We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship, and lose from confrontation."

"Both sides should keep to the right direction in the development of our relations, increase exchanges, enhance mutual trust, seek common ground while reserving differences, properly manage differences and sensitive issues and jointly promote the long-term, sound and steady development of China-U.S. relations," he said.

Hu, who is on his first state visit to the United States since Obama took office, will travel to Chicago on Thursday and wrap up his visit on Friday.

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Congressional Leaders to Skip China State Dinner
January 19, 2011, 4:27 PM EST
More From Businessweek



By Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Lisa Lerer

(Updates with Hu quote in fifth paragraph, pollster’s quote in eighth paragraph.)

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Three of the four top U.S. congressional leaders plan to skip a state dinner tonight with Chinese President Hu Jintao, highlighting tension between Congress and the world’s second-largest economic power when President Barack Obama is trying to strengthen ties.

House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are taking a pass on the black-tie event at the White House. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, a critic of China’s human-rights policy, plans to go to the state dinner, the first for a Chinese leader in more than 13 years.

All three no-shows, through their aides, cited scheduling conflicts. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, and Reid, a Nevada Democrat who has called the Chinese president “a dictator,” are to meet Hu at the Capitol tomorrow.

“I look forward to the meeting,” Boehner told reporters today.

If Hu or Obama had concerns about the leaders’ decisions to stay away, neither would say. At a news conference, Hu deferred a question on the matter to Obama, saying the president was “in a better position to answer.” Obama never did.

Lawmakers in both political parties have been making hostile statements and proposing tough economic measures against China, including legislation to let the U.S. government impose duties on the nation for undervaluing its currency.

Scoring With Voters

Political messages critical of China scored high with voters during last year’s congressional campaign, said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who researched the issue while advising candidates.

“There’s no question that the American public looks at China as very much a serious competitor -- it’s not quite an enemy, but it’s a competitor -- and Americans are very wary of China these days,” he said.

Mellman, who has advised Reid, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and numerous House members, said virtually every candidate he worked with last year touched on the issue in some way.

Hu’s visit is focused on economic ties between the two countries, including more than $400 billion in annual trade, as well as differences over human rights, China’s enforcement of intellectual-property rights and what U.S. officials say is the artificially low value of the yuan.

Higher Import Duties

Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a letter this week that they will try to revive House-passed legislation to let U.S. businesses seek higher duties on some Chinese imports to offset any advantage from an undervalued currency. The bill died in the Senate last year.

At the same time, lawmakers preparing to receive Hu at the Capitol tomorrow are making it clear that the Chinese president is no friend.

“He is a dictator,” Reid told a Las Vegas television station yesterday. “He can do a lot of things through the form of government they have. Maybe I shouldn’t have said ‘dictator,’ but they have a different type of government than we have, and that is an understatement.”

Republicans and Democrats hammered at China during a briefing by the House Foreign Affairs Committee today.

Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, a longtime critic of China’s human-rights record, called Hu an “oppressor” and a “murderer,” questioning why Obama was giving a respectful welcome to “a monstrous regime.”

‘World Domination’

Democratic Representative Albio Sires of New Jersey said China was seeking “world domination.” New Jersey Republican Representative Chris Smith suggested that Hu should be brought before an international criminal tribunal instead of feted at the White House.

The remarks were in contrast to the scene today at the executive mansion, where Obama and first lady Michelle Obama welcomed Hu with an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn.

Obama said the U.S. and China “have an enormous stake in each other’s success.” Hu said, “Our cooperation as partners should be based on mutual respect.”

Lawmakers’ slights of Hu may add to distrust between the two nations, said Dan Mahaffee, an expert on China at the Washington-based Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.

“It sends an unfortunate message that at a time of competition between the two countries, that American politicians are busy looking inward,” Mahaffee said, adding that lawmakers are playing to public fears.

Pew Survey

A January survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 53 percent of Americans said it was important for the U.S. to get tougher with China on trade and economic issues. One in five, or 20 percent, said China posed the greatest threat to the U.S. of any country, up from 11 percent in November 2009.

“Local pressure at the district translates up,” Mahaffee said.

Dozens of congressional candidates aired television advertisements last year seizing on the theme. In one, Reid called his Tea Party-supported Republican opponent Sharron Angle “a foreign worker’s best friend,” and said she backed tax breaks for “outsourcing to China and India.”

Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California made similar charges against her Republican rival, former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina, saying she shipped jobs “to Shanghai instead of San Jose.”

Chinese Wind Turbines

Republicans hit on the theme too. In a spot set to Chinese- sounding music, candidate Spike Maynard slammed Democratic Representative Nick Rahall of West Virginia for backing Obama’s economic-stimulus law, saying it helped fund projects powered by Chinese-made wind turbines.

“Only a politician who’s been in Washington 34 years would vote to help foreign companies create Chinese jobs making windmills,” said the advertisement, which featured pictures of Mao Zedong, the communist revolutionary who ruled the People’s Republic of China from its founding in 1949 to his death in 1976.

Reid and Boxer won re-election; Maynard lost.

The potency of China as a campaign theme was clear, said Clayton Dube, who leads the University of Southern California’s U.S.-China Institute in Los Angeles.

“Part of it is a genuine worry that the United States is being victimized by an all-powerful Chinese government,” Dube said. “The notion that things are not fair is a very powerful one. It resonates with Americans all the time, particularly in hard times.”

--With assistance from James Rowley, Roger Runningen and Michael Forsythe in Washington. Editors: Laurie Asseo, Bob Drummond.