Chinese Leader Visits USA
January 19th, 2011 President Hu is visiting the USA to meet with President Obama. Mr. Hu emphasized that he has met Obama 8 times in the last two years an unprecedented number of meetings. There is an interesting spread of approaches in the media to this meeting. The Independent in Great Britain has taken the AP article and reports mostly about the economic agreements and the desire of the two nations to get along. The Guardian.UK has taken the position of emphasizing the embarrassment of Hu with questions about their Human Rights record. On the other hand the Christian Science Monitor has taken a path somewhat between those two extremes.
Right wing bloggers and Republican Congresspersons are demanding a tough stance regarding China. The administration is taking a much more conciliatory approach although President Obama did mention the human rights situation. Obama made it clear he is mostly concerned about jobs and trade. The worlds top two leaders are once again face to face. I expect business as usual to result. Tonight on PBS the experts seemed to be all about claiming the Chinese leadership is weak. I think that is wishful thinking on their part. They seem to be equating China's Politburo with Arab dictators.
From the Independent
Obama and Hu vow cooperation
AP
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
The United States and China unveiled $45 billion in export deals today as Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao sought to paper over deep rifts about trade, currencies and security.
Amid the pomp of a state visit, Obama and Hu vowed to seek common ground as they launched talks aimed at easing the strains of the past year over North Korea, economic imbalances, human rights, Taiwan, Tibet and a host of other issues.
Welcoming Hu to the White House, Obama hailed the event as a chance to demonstrate that the World's two biggest economic powers "have an enormous stake in each other's success."
"Even as our nations compete in some areas, we can cooperate in others," Obama said at the choreographed welcoming ceremony. "Let us seize these possibilities together."
The two countries used the summit to unveil a series of deals, including China's purchase of 200 Boeing aircraft. US officials said the $45 billion in deals would support an estimated 235,000 American jobs.
Offering another tangible achievement, the United States and China plan to announce a deal to create a jointly financed security centre in China.
But in a major concern for US companies and politicians, Beijing has so far resisted demands for faster appreciation of its currency, the yuan, that would possibly help lower China's trade surplus with the United States, which Washington puts at $270 billion.
Gently raising China's human rights record, Obama said: "History shows that societies are more harmonious, nations are successful and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all people are upheld, including the universal rights of every human being."
Hu said he had come to "enhance mutual trust" and open a new chapter in relations but signalled he would bristle at any effort to push China on its currency practices, human rights and other disputes that it deems to be domestic matters.
"China and the United States must respect each other's choices in development and each other's choices in development paths and each other's core interests," Hu said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for more cooperation from China in dealing with North Korea's nuclear programme and "provocative behavior." She also said the Obama administration was pressing Beijing "very hard to gets its entities into compliance" with UN sanctions on Iran.
Hu has been reluctant to give ground to US demands to intensify pressure on China's ally, North Korea, to abandon its nuclear ambitions. North Korea recently caused alarm by shelling a South Korean island and claiming advances in uranium enrichment that could boost its nuclear weapons capability.
US politicians, who will host Hu tomorrow, are impatient for results about China's economic policies. A meager outcome at the summit could raise congressional pressure on Beijing over the trade deficit and the way it manages the yuan.
A group of 84 politicians urged Obama in a letter today to tell Hu that "America's patience is near an end" over China's failure to play by trade rules.
Obama's challenge to China's human rights comes after critics at home accused him of being too deferential on the issue in his 2009 visit to Beijing.
Hu was likely to raise his worries about US economic and security policies, including arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China deems a breakaway province.
The arms sales to Taiwan, even at the time when cross-Strait relations are improving, is the single most important factor jeopardizing US-China military ties, Major-General Yao Yunzhu, a senior military researcher, wrote in the official China Daily today.
Beijing also wants the Obama administration's reassurances that China's big holdings of US government debt are not threatened because of what some critics describe as loose US fiscal policies.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/obama-and-hu-vow-cooperation-2188752.html
From the Guardian
Barack Obama risks China's ire with human rights remarksTaking tougher approach towards China, Barack Obama also urges Hu Jintao to engage in talks about Tibet with Dalai Lama
Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Tania Branigan in Beijing guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 January 2011 20.11 GMT
The state visit by China's president, Hu Jintao, to the US was today overshadowed by Beijing's poor record on human rights, with Barack Obama twice referring to the matter in public.
The US president spoke about a need to recognise human rights during a ceremony on the White House lawn to welcome Hu at the start of his state visit, and again during a joint press conference.
The move indicates a toughening approach by Obama towards China after strained relations during the last 12 months over North Korea, Iran, the strength of the Chinese economy, and other issues.
Obama also called on China to engage in talks about Tibet with the Dalai Lama, saying he had been candid in his talks with Hu. He said that while he recognised the US and China were at different stages of development, there were fundamental values such as freedom of speech, religion and assembly that transcended culture.
The pointed comments on mutual respect suggested limits to Obama's ability to pressure China on human rights. Hu would like to have got through the four-day visit without any reference to human rights and to keep the focus instead on the pomp and ceremony associated with a state visit, the highlight of which was a state dinner scheduled at the White House later in the day.
But the visit is not going as smoothly as Hu would have liked. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, was provocative too, describing Hu yesterday as "a dictator".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/19/barack-obama-china-human-rights
From Christian Science Monitor
China-US summit: Will Beijing follow through on economic pledges?
China has offered new promises on intellectual property rights and contract bidding. Also at the summit Wednesday, Obama touted business deals worth $45 billion in US exports.
By Mark Trumbull, Staff writer / January 19, 2011
US exports worth $45 billion sounds small relative to the gaping US trade deficit with China, which could be more than five times that amount when final 2010 figures are tallied. But for President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who announced new bilateral business deals, it's the symbol as much as the substance that counts.
Despite all their differences, the two leaders emphasized partnership rather than conflict at their summit Wednesday.
This suggests that both sides recognize the benefits of economic engagement, as well as risks to their economies if relations sour.
The summit comes after a year in which signs of tension emerged between the world's two leading economic powers, including US frustrations that China is not doing more to correct an allegedly misaligned currency value.
No grand bargain on the yuan's value emerged from the bilateral meeting Wednesday. But Mr. Obama said that $45 billion in new US exports, approved by China amid preparations for the Wednesday meeting, would support an estimated 235,000 US jobs.
The newly inked business deals include Chinese purchases worth $19 billion in aircraft from Boeing, plus some $25 billion from 70 other contracts that range from auto parts to chemicals. The ventures include partnerships on renewable energy and transportation, involving General Electric (on high-speed rail, clean coal, and avionics), Cummins Engine (on hybrid buses), and UPC Management (on wind power).
In addition, the White House touted new pledges by China to ensure that US companies will not be discriminated against when bidding for contracts in China. Beijing also promised to strengthen enforcement against violators of intellectual property rights.
Copyright violations have been a major source of tension between the nations in recent years. The disputes aren't likely to disappear overnight, but China agreed this week to address the problem by setting aside government funds for the purchase of legal software, publishing the results of legal-software audits, and clarifying the liabilities of third parties who sell counterfeit products.
It remains to be seen whether these moves carry much weight with members of the US Congress, many of whom view current policies in China as a threat to America's economic health.
Among China-related bills that Congress could consider this year is one that would penalize China for its alleged currency manipulation. Proponents say a show of American force could nudge China toward changes that would boost US exports and jobs.
Obama and his economic team agree that the currency issue is important, but they're sticking with the less confrontational approach honed by previous presidents. Whereas President Reagan was known for his "Trust, but verify" attitude on US-Soviet arms treaties, Obama's approach to China might be characterized as "Cooperate, but don't capitulate."
Echoing the view of many economists, the president said the growing commercial ties between the two nations have been "good for the United States," and he spoke of "friendly competition" with China in global markets.
By allowing the yuan to appreciate in value, Obama said, China could give a needed push to the purchasing power of its own consumer base. That, in turn, could help China's economy become more balanced, with a greater reliance on domestic consumers for its growth and less reliance on exports to the US.
The US also needs to have a more balanced economy, he added, with less reliance on foreign borrowing from nations including China. (When America's imports exceed its exports in a given year, the difference is made up by borrowing from abroad.)
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2011/0119/China-US-summit-Will-Beijing-follow-through-on-economic-pledges
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