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US taking more assertive stance toward
Beijing
NY Times News Service, WASHINGTON
Chinese President Hu Jintao (JÀAÀÜ) is coming to town this week, and officials say
US President Barack Obama will be taking a far more assertive stance as he
greets his biggest global economic rival.
On the pomp and ceremony front, the Obama administration appears to be deploying
much of the White House¡¦s considerable protocol arsenal.
Hu is getting two dinners with Obama: first an intimate meal at the White House
last night, and then a grand state dinner tonight. There will also be a lunch at
the State Department hosted by Vice President Joe Biden; a joint news conference
with Obama; a joint appearance with the president before US and Chinese business
leaders; and chats on Capitol Hill with Democratic and Republican leaders.
However, the White House has prepared for the visit in other ways in the past
two weeks, dispatching several Cabinet officials to publicly lay down challenges
for Hu.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had a testy series of meetings in Beijing
last week, telling reporters beforehand that the US would counter China¡¦s
military buildup in the Pacific by stepping up investments in weapons, jet
fighters and technology.
Last Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the US would grant
China more access to high-tech US products and expand trade and investment
opportunities in the US only if China opened its own domestic market to US
products. Geithner said China also needed to take additional steps to allow the
yuan to appreciate in value ¡X an issue a bipartisan group of senators vowed on
Monday to address with legislation this year.
Then on Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized China¡¦s
human rights record, citing the persecution of the pro-democracy group Charter
08 and the imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo (¼B¾åªi), the political activist who was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but whose family was blocked from attending the
prize ceremony in Oslo last month.
¡§The longer China represses freedoms,¡¨ she said, ¡§the longer that Nobel Prize
winners¡¦ empty chairs in Oslo will remain a symbol of a great nation¡¦s
unrealized potential and unfulfilled promise.¡¨
David Rothkopf, a national security expert who worked in the administration of
former US president Bill Clinton, said: ¡§There¡¦s been this well-orchestrated and
clearly well thought-out campaign, over the past two weeks, involving the
secretary of State, Treasury, Defense and Commerce making strong statements
regarding currency, the trade imbalance, human rights and China¡¦s military
stance.¡¨
¡§So you¡¦re welcoming the leader of the most important rival power in the world
into the capital, and the way you pave his entrance into the city is laid with
these four big thorny issues,¡¨ he said.
Eswar Shanker Prasad, a former economist with the IMF who now teaches trade
policy at Cornell University, said China may have helped to strengthen the
administration¡¦s hand.
Recent Chinese moves to restrict access to its domestic economy have so
frustrated US companies that corporate leaders are pressing the Obama
administration to take a tougher stance.
¡§That¡¦s why Geithner was so blunt about saying China has to provide more market
access,¡¨ Prasad said. ¡§I think Geithner¡¦s speech set the tone very clearly about
what they are trying to do. The language is very clear, and they are making the
quid pro quo explicit.¡¨
Hu is bringing a number of Chinese business leaders with him, and the White
House has set apart 45 minutes today for the two leaders to meet with US and
Chinese corporate leaders.
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