Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) took his political roadshow to the US heartland yesterday, visiting Chicago to highlight business and cultural ties between the world’s two largest economies.
Leaving behind the rancor of Washington where he was pressed on human rights and currency policy, Hu was feted by the Chicago elite at a gala dinner in US President Barack Obama’s hometown. He was to wrap up his four-day US state visit with stops at a local school and a business exhibition.
Analysts said Hu’s trip had gone smoothly enough to help set a better tone to the relationship after a flare-up in tensions last year over issues such as trade, North Korea and Internet censorship.
Chinese media lauded Hu’s visit as a “historic masterstroke” in easing tensions.
State television news channels gave blanket coverage of Hu’s state dinner and welcome at the White House, in a reflection of China’s desire for its leader to be portrayed as a valued and honored player on the world stage, but the reports largely ignored thornier questions of currency and human rights.
The visit has been billed by some experts as the most important US-China visit in more than 30 years. Obama has said the relationship between the two countries will help shape the 21st century.
Wednesday’s choreographed White House summit, the centerpiece of Hu’s trip, was mostly glitch-free and featured the pomp and ceremony China covets as a symbol of its rising global stature.
US officials touted an acknowledgment from Hu at a joint press conference that more needs to be done on human rights and welcomed US$45 billion in export deals with China.
They also said the visit helped to serve both leaders’ goal of deepening bilateral ties.
“We believe we come out of here advancing the shared view of the relationship that both the US and China have and, I think, that both presidents have, which is that we should identify issues of common interest and aim to build cooperative approaches on those issues,” US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said in a video conference with Beijing bloggers.
On human rights, many activists doubt the comments at the summit would lead to an increase in freedoms in China.
“Recently, we’ve seen a large regression. Hu’s statements might be considered a form of progress, but the fact is that fundamental rights are still not guaranteed,” rights lawyer Li Fangping (李方平) said. “The central government knows this, but it has not acted to cure the problem.”
One aim of Hu’s Chicago trip was to present a more benign image of China to Americans wary of its growing economic might and upset over what they view as unfair trade policies.
Chicago is the financial center of the Midwest, which has many of the products China buys. China bought more than half the soybeans exported by the US last year. The Asian giant also buys cars, steel, construction and farming equipment, and pharmaceuticals.
Hu has urged economic cooperation and portrayed the US-China trade relationship as win-win.
“China wishes to work with the United States to fully tap our cooperation potential in fiscal, financial, energy, environmental, infrastructure development and other fields,” Hu told Thursday’s dinner, attended by a number of corporate executives.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese