PRC President Hu Jintao visits the USA

I was listing to HU's reply at the welcom ceremony.His English was remarkably good , or was I listening to a translated voice over?

Obama Says U.S.-China Cooperation Brings `Substantial Benefits'
By Nicholas Johnston and Michael Forsythe - Jan 19, 2011 3:41 PM ET


President Barack Obama said the U.S. and China both reap “substantial benefits” from cooperation on economic and strategic issues even as friction remains over currency, trade and human rights.

Following a meeting with business leaders from both countries, Obama said that a prosperous and growing China is an important market for U.S. goods, and the administration highlighted deals to sell Boeing Co. airplanes and General Electric Co. locomotives.

“We want to sell you all kinds of stuff,” Obama said at a White House news conference with Hu. “We want to sell you planes, we want to sell you cars, we want to sell you software.”

At the same time, Obama pressed Hu on currency and trade, saying the “undervalued” yuan and China’s intervention to keep it low contributes to the trade imbalance between the two nations. He also said U.S. “core views” on human rights “transcend” differences in history and culture and that he expects China to evolve.

After a formal welcome on the South Lawn of the White House this morning to begin the first full state visit by a Chinese leader to the U.S. since 1997, Obama and Hu met in the Oval Office before joining a group of corporate executives to discuss the more than $400 billion trade relationship between the two countries.

Export Deals

Earlier in the day, the Obama administration said China has agreed to export deals worth $45 billion as part of the summit’s focus on economic ties amid continued U.S. trade deficits with the Asian nation. The package includes $19 billion purchase of 200 Boeing aircraft, all previously announced orders, as well as other agreements with Caterpillar Inc., Cummins Inc., Westinghouse Electric Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Alcoa Inc. and GE.

“These deals will support some 235,000 American jobs,” Obama said.

Increasing exports is an important element of Obama’s efforts to reduce the 9.4 percent U.S. unemployment rate. He called China a “key part” of that goal while expressing concern about China’s currency.

“How do we make sure that in fact our trading relationship is fair?” Obama said. “The currency issue is a part of the problem.”

Movement on Yuan

China’s yuan reached a 17-year high today in Shanghai trading before the White House ceremony, rising to 6.5817 per dollar before closing little changed at 6.5824, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade system. It has climbed about 3 percent against the dollar since Chinese officials in June scrapped a peg that had been in place since the global financial crisis.

“There has been movement, but it has not been fast enough,” Obama said.

At today’s meeting with CEOs, Obama and Hu said it was important for the two nations to deepen their business ties.

Hu said his nation “welcomes U.S. companies and promised that China would treat fairly U.S. companies doing business there.

“It all feels very, very good that you asked us to be a partner,” Jim McNerney, the chief executive officer of Boeing, said to Hu at the start of the session.

Executives Invited

Other attendees at the meeting were Chief Executive Officers Steve Ballmer of Microsoft Corp.; Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt; Westinghouse CEO Aris Candris; former Sybase Inc. chief executive John Chen; Coca-Cola Co. chief executive Muhtar Kent; DuPont Co. CEO Ellen J. Kullman; Greg Page, CEO of Cargill Inc.; John Thornton, chairman of HSBC Holdings Plc’s North American division; David Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of Carlyle Group; Paul Otellini, Intel Corp. CEO; and Dow Chemical Co. CEO Andrew Liveris.

Chinese executives attending the meeting were Lu Guanqiu, chairman of Hangzhou-based Wanxiang Group; Lenovo Group Ltd. chairman Liu Chuanzhi; Lou Jiwei, chairman of the China Investment Corp.; and Haier Group Corp. chief executive Zhang Ruimin. Wanxiang, China’s biggest auto-parts maker, has a plant in Illinois and employs more than 5,000 people in the U.S.

“People in the U.S. welcome us,” Lu said in an interview. “We’re solving their employment problems.”

On human rights, Obama, 49, said in response to a question that differences over the issue won’t halt progress in the relationship between the two countries.

Evolution

“There has been an evolution in China over the past 30 years, and my expectation is that 30 years from now we will see further evolution,” Obama said in response to a question.

Hu, 68, initially didn’t answer the question, saying later that because of technical problems with the translation he didn’t hear it. When it was raised again, Hu said China respects “the universality of human rights.”

China is still a developing country that faces economic and social challenges, he said. “A lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights,” Hu said.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has been in a Chinese jail since last year on a charge of plotting to subvert the ruling Communist Party. Outside the White House during the press conference, protesters demonstrated along the street, some carrying signs calling on China to “Free Tibet Now.”

Hu’s 2006 visit to the White House to meet with then- President George W. Bush was marred by a demonstrator at the welcoming ceremony who criticized China’s persecution of the Falun Gong religious group.

I think it should be a voiced over. Although the major Chinese leaders know English, but they seldom speak English, the English language they know of could be the need-to-know level but not very sophisicated type, say state coversations. Speaking of which, I remember the previous Chinese Premier Mr Zhu Rongji has good command in English but I never recall an occassion he attended using English to address people.

So as for your question, I doubt President Hu would speak English in front of the media reason being as a leader and citizen of China, speaking English in front of media would 'degrade' his country's image.

Btw, where did you see it?

Goldman CEO Talks Shop With China’s President
Jan. 19 2011
By HALAH TOURYALAI
Hu Jintao

Will today's meeting with China's President Jintao help Goldman and its Wall Street peers?

On the same day Goldman Sachs reported a 53% drop in earnings its CEO Lloyd Blankfein was chatting it up with President Obama and China’s President Hu Jintao.

Obama invited some 14 corporate leaders to The White House today to meet with Jintao and discuss their business relations. Blankfein was the only CEO from Wall Street at today’s meeting which also included Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and GE’s Jeffrey Immelt.

What’s interesting about today’s meeting is the absence of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. The darling of Wall Street has had an on-again off-again relationship with The White House and President Obama. Lately though it appeared the relationship was back on, so it’s a bit surprising Dimon wasn’t schmoozing with the rest of America’s big league CEOs and world leaders.

According to The White House logs (part of the administration’s transparency effort) this is Blankfein’s 4th visit to The White House since 2009. Meanwhile, Dimon has visited about 10 times. (I’ve reached out to The White House, JPM and Goldman to confirm these visits because the database is a bit tricky. I’ve also asked the White House press office for information about how it selects the CEOs it invites to meetings such as this one. No word yet from any of them.)

For what it’s worth, HSBC’s non-executive chairman of North American operations was also at today’s meeting.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says , “You’ll see important commercial relationships that our CEOs have and want to expand in China that the president believes is important to make a forceful case in front of both the CEOs from China as well as President Hu.”

In that sense, Goldman may be better positioned to discuss the future of business relationships with China. It’s had a wider experience in operating businesses in China. For example, JPMorgan only recently got approval to underwrite deals for Chinese companies in the country’s mainland. Goldman has been doing that since 2004.

Still though, doesn’t it feel a little funny that President Obama is calling on one of Wall Street’s most villainized CEOs to help build business bridges with China? I suppose that can only mean one thing: Love it or hate it, Goldman Sachs is still the king of Wall Street.

Of course, even the king isn’t immune from the economic hurdles affecting its peers. The bank’s shares tumbled nearly 5% today to $166 after it reported a 53% drop in profits to $2.4 billion from $4.8 billion a year ago quarter. Much that was related to drops in revenue in the bank’s trading unit, particularly its FICC desks (usually a hot spot for Goldman) which suffered a 48% drop in revenue to $1.6 billion.

“The drop wasn’t totally unexpected but at this point it doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s harder to generate revenue and profits than it was a few years ago,” Ticonderoga Securities analyst Douglas Sipkin told me.

Indeed. That’s probably what Blankfein was thinking when accepted the invitation to sweet-talk China’s President Hu Jintao.

=hanqiang1011;137420]I think it should be a voiced over. Although the major Chinese leaders know English, but they seldom speak English, the English language they know of could be the need-to-know level but not very sophisicated type, say state coversations. Speaking of which, I remember the previous Chinese Premier Mr Zhu Rongji has good command in English but I never recall an occassion he attended using English to address people.

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I saw it on theBBC News this morning. The scene was taken mid distance and you could see Pres.. HU down to waist level, he was giving a reply after being welcomed. THe English was very good although you could tell it was spoken by someone of a Asian background because of a very slight asian way of pronouncing certain words.

KYli said:

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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.

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With politicians like these, no wonder America is screwed. Sorry no disrespect to Americans. I just think these people, instead of lightening the grave domestic problems, chose to further blame their problems on others while increasing misunderstandings and ploying public fears to get their political agendas, are as ethical as tobacco companies. Their hearts are all made out of toxic substances

Hu Flaunts Rising China Power Using Chicago’s Friendly Confines
January 20, 2011, 12:09 AM EST
More From Businessweek

By John McCormick

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Chicago is known as a destination for immigrants. Yet in a city with 2.8 million people, the most recent U.S. Census estimates found only about 40,000 Chinese -- just 1.4 percent of the population.

So why is the president of China, Hu Jintao, coming to Chicago as the only other stop on a U.S. tour that started in Washington, instead of places with more Chinese residents and businesses, such as San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles?

The answer combines longstanding business relationships, pragmatic politicians who have muted their criticism of the Chinese, and one of the first Mandarin-language programs in a U.S. high school. Pushing them all is a mayor whose brother -- a former Commerce secretary and early advocate for China trade -- now works for a city resident, President Barack Obama.

“We can’t shut our doors,” Mayor Richard M. Daley said in an interview yesterday in Washington for Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations With Judy Woodruff.”

“We have to be able to work with them,” Daley said. “We will differ with them on issues, but I think we can work with them to the betterment of the United States of America and China.”

Hu and a delegation traveling with him are scheduled to arrive in Chicago today after attending events in Washington, including a state dinner at the White House last night. They will meet with U.S. business leaders, sign commerce agreements and visit Walter Payton College Prep, a public school that has offered a Chinese-language program since 1999.

Softer on Chinese

Chicago wooed the Chinese in part because Illinois politicians have been less outspoken in their criticism of China’s policies, giving the city a bargaining advantage, said William Spence, a Chicago lawyer and co-chairman of the Chicago Sister Cities Committee.

“Here we are, with this enormous economy in Chicago,” he said, and “we are friendly to China in ways that the East and West coasts are not.”

Spence pointed to Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York who is pushing legislation meant to prod China into raising the value of its currency, and Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, who served as speaker of the House from 2007 through 2010 and has sought trade sanctions against China because of its human-rights record.

Three of the four top U.S. congressional leaders skipped yesterday’s state dinner, highlighting the contentious relationship between Congress and China, the world’s second- largest economy. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada; and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, all skipped the first state dinner for a Chinese leader in more than 13 years.

Daley Flights

Daley, 68, who has visited China three times since his first trip in 2004, said he didn’t think that the Chinese were rewarding those who have been less critical.

“We’re not selling out,” Daley said. “And they’re not saying, ‘Well, you’ve been silent, we’re going to benefit your city or your company.’ It’s not like that.”

That Chicago is Obama’s adopted hometown likely helped the city’s lobbying to win a visit from Hu.

“It certainly doesn’t hurt that President Obama is from here and Rahm Emanuel is coming out of the White House to run for mayor of Chicago,” Spence said. “That helps the Chinese understand that many roads in the U.S. lead through Chicago.”

U.S. companies that get the largest proportion of their revenues from China are more commonly based in California than in Illinois, Bloomberg data show. A forum in Chicago tomorrow seeks to change that.

Deepening Ties

“I think the reason they chose Chicago is for recognition of the strong business ties between Chicago and China, which have been deepening over the past decade,” said Thomas Wright, the executive director of studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “Mayor Daley has been instrumental in fostering greater ties with China.”

Wright’s group is hosting the forum with the Beijing-based China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products. It’s likely to draw as many as 1,000 U.S. and Chinese business leaders, representing about 60 U.S. and Chinese companies, Wright said.

About 300 companies based in the Chicago area have offices in China, and 30 Chinese companies maintain operations in Chicago, Wright said. While in Chicago, the Chinese also will sign a deal today to buy an unspecified amount of U.S. soybeans, according to the U.S. Soybean Export Council.

Daley led Chicago trade missions to Shanghai in 2004 and to Beijing in 2006. The pitch in Beijing, made over a seafood lunch and using a PowerPoint presentation, was to sell the business community there on Chicago as a place to expand.

Brother’s Backing

The mayor’s interest in China runs in the family. His youngest brother, William M. Daley, 62, Obama’s new chief of staff, helped the nation negotiate its entrance into the World Trade Organization and earn most-favored-nation trading status when he was Commerce secretary for President Bill Clinton.

China is an important market for several Chicago-area companies, including Boeing Co. Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola Solutions Inc. receives about 6 percent of its revenue from the China region, according to Bloomberg data.

Greg Brown, chief executive officer of Motorola Solutions, was at the White House yesterday and will participate in talks with the China delegation in Chicago. Tama McWhinney, a company spokeswoman, declined to comment on what it expects from the sessions.

Downtown Dinner

Shortly after Hu and his delegation arrive at O’Hare International Airport, where four daily nonstop flights depart for China, they will join U.S. business executives at a downtown hotel.

Tomorrow, they will gather at a suburban location to showcase Chinese companies with Midwest operations. Wanxiang America Corp., a Chinese-owned auto parts company based in the Chicago suburb of Elgin, will be one of the companies highlighted.

Hu’s visit to a public school named after Walter Payton, the legendary Chicago Bears running back, comes as Chicago public schools are seeing strong interest in Chinese-language courses.

The district has 42 schools that offer such courses to 12,000 students, said Jane Lu, the district’s Chinese World Language Program coordinator. The number of students taking the classes has doubled since 2006, and Mandarin is the second most popular language for instruction after Spanish.

Robert Davis, a former director of the Confucius Institute of Chicago, traveled with Daley on his first trip to China, which included a chat with schoolchildren fluent in English.

“It left a huge impression on him because everyone spoke English,” he said. “It really clicked for him, the power of language.”

--With assistance from Lisa Lerer and James Rowley in Washington, Hugo Miller in Toronto and Jeff Wilson in Chicago. Editors: Flynn McRoberts, Mike Tackett.

airsuperiority said:

With politicians like these, no wonder America is screwed. Sorry no disrespect to Americans. I just think these people, instead of lightening the grave domestic problems, chose to further blame their problems on others while increasing misunderstandings and ploying public fears to get their political agendas, are as ethical as tobacco companies. Their hearts are all made out of toxic substances

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Come on man this is not just an American phenonmenon. Politicians are alike all over...

siegecrossbow said:

Comeon man this is not just an American phenonmenon. Politicians are alike all over...

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Not every country suffers from gridlock. One article I read commented that the absence of these congressional leaders will basically show a country with a political leadership looking inward.

When the US talks about cooperation with China on Iran, Korea &c. they suppose that their analysis of the situation is correct and that China just needs to acknowledge that, without remembering, that the US analyses with respect to Afghanistan, Iraq, Tunisia were not correct.