China’s President in US for trade talks
President Obama didn’t get the headlines he’d hoped for the last couple of times he met President Hu Jintao. He wants this week to be different, writes Washington Correspondent Sarah Smith.
When Barack Obama visited China in 2009 he was criticized for appearing too submissive. And last year at a G20 meeting in Seoul he appeared to be outmaneuvered by the Chinese delegation. This time he intends to stand his ground. Even while he rolls out the red carpet.
The Chinese leader Hu Jintao is getting all the pomp and circumstance America can muster. An intimate White House dinner on Tuesday night. A full state banquet on Wednesday. And a est wing joint press conference just before Channel 4 News on Wednesday. The first live press conference that anyone can remember Hu Jintao agreeing to participate in.
Tougher line
But behind the scenes America is going to try to take a tougher line than they have managed before.
Firstly the Americans will once again ask China to stop manipulating the value of their currency, the Renminbi, to keep the cost of their exports artificially low. They have been asked to stop this many times before and it has had little effect. This time the US will try to offer greater access to American high tech products and wider investment opportunities in American companies in return.
US economy battle
Are the Chinese trying to help the US economy, or take it over? Read more from Sarah Smith - The American economy: what role does China play?
Sharp words will be exchanged on defence. The Chinese have been showing their muscle in military build up recently, including embarrassing the US Defence Secretary Bob Gates by testing a new fighter jet whilst he was visiting Beijing last week. They will be firmly told that the US intends to match any escalation and will not allow them military dominance in the Pacific region.
Human rights
And on human rights, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been quite outspoken in the last few days, criticizing China for persecuting the pro-democracy groups and for refusing to allow the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo to attend the prize giving ceremony in Oslo last month. These are sentiments that will be repeated to the Chinese delegation.
The Obama administration obviously thinks they can speak their mind and still do business with China.
The Obama administration obviously thinks they can speak their mind and still do business with China, hoping that they can look like equal partners as a result. But this visit will prompt many Americans to consider China’s seemingly unstoppable rise and America’s inevitable decline.
China risk
According to a poll in the Wall Street Journal almost half (47 per cent) of Americans think China is already the worlds leading economic power. The truth is that the US economy is still three times the size of China’s. And per capita Americans are ten times richer than their Chinese counterparts. But they think they are worse off. Possibly because the unemployment rate in America is still a very depressing 10 per cent, while China has only 4 per cent unemployment. China continues to have double digit economic growth while America struggles to pull herself out of recession.
No wonder China comes out top in a list of countries representing the “greatest danger” to the US, just above North Korea — and well above Iran — in the same poll.