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Hu Jintao arriving for state visit focused on economics, security, human rights

19 January 2011 01:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Tuesday for a state visit replete with ceremonial flourishes but driven by high-priority economic, global security and human rights issues, APA reports quoting The Washington Post.

After a tense year that saw frequent verbal clashes between Washington and Beijing on everything from trade and currency to North Korea and the South China Sea, Hu is seeking to reaffirm China’s position as a rising power but also to calm fears over its intentions.

President Obama, meanwhile, wants to re-focus attention on China’s dismal human rights record, and according to aides will likely make the point that expanded civil liberties could further spur economic innovation in the emerging powerhouse.

The White House insisted as a condition of the two-day state visit that both Obama and Hu appear before reporters at a news conference and take questions.

The two leaders are scheduled to have a private, working dinner at the White House on Tuesday night, and to headline a formal state dinner on Wednesday.

Hu, who is staying at Blair House, across from the White House, is also expected to tour the new Chinese embassy complex, meet with leading Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill; speak at a lunch of business executives and China-watchers and then travel to Chicago to visit a high school and attend a dinner.

In the days leading up to China’s visit, top Obama administration officials such as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner made speeches laying out Obama’s position on key issues.

Clinton said in a speech at the State Department on Friday that the United States "will continue to speak out and press China when it censors bloggers and imprisons activists, when religious believers, particularly those in unregistered groups, are denied full freedom of worship, when lawyers and legal advocates are sent to prison simply for representing clients who challenge the government’s positions."

Geithner, speaking at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said China’s unwillingness to allow its currency to rise in value "is not a tenable policy for China or for the world economy."

Chinese officials, in return, said revaluing the yuan would not solve the Chinese trade deficit with the United States. They also said they hoped that Obama would assure Hu during the visit that U.S. debt held by China is secure.

Before leaving China for Washington, Hu expressed hope that his country and the United States could find "common ground" on issues from fighting terrorism and nuclear proliferation to cooperating on clean energy and infrastructure development.

"We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship, and lose from confrontation," Hu said.