In public remarks at his meeting with Xi, Obama said the U.S. believes that a strong and prosperous China can help to bring stability and prosperity; but he sounded a warning on trade.
"We have tried to emphasize that because of China's extraordinary development over the last two decades, with expanding power and prosperity also comes increased responsibilities. And so we want to work with China to make sure that everybody is working by the same rules of the road when it comes to the world economic system ? and that includes ensuring that there is a balanced trade flow between not only the United States and China but around the world," he said.
"It also means that on critical issues like human rights we will continue to emphasize what we believe is the importance of recognizing the aspirations and rights of all people."
Xi's visit is largely seen within the administration as an opportunity to better know a man who is regarded in Washington as something of an enigma. U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke recently observed that American officials "really don't know that much about him".
Daniel Russel, the head of China policy at the National Security Council, said the trip is principally "for us to learn more about him" and to allow Xi "to broaden his understanding of the United States".
"Xi Jinping isn't yet the No. 1 official in China, so one likely wouldn't expect him to be breaking new ground," he said.
What little U.S. officials do know leads them to conclude that Xi is more confident and comfortable in dealing with the west than Hu, and that he is willing to get beyond set talking points.
U.S. officials also regard Xi as more open about the problems Beijing faces.
After a visit to China last year, the U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden said: "He genuinely is open about the nature and extent of their problems, what they're going to have to deal with, short-term and long-term."
Xi's visit is heavily choreographed, with few public appearances and without any press conferences, to ensure he is not confronted by protests or awkward questions over Tibet, or the U.N. draft on Syria. During Hu's visit last year, the White House erected large screens on the lawn so the Chinese president would not have to see Americans protesting over China's occupation of Tibet.
Neither side tried to deny that there are frictions over a whole range of issues from trade to human rights. But they sought to portray them as differences that can be overcome because it was in the interests of both countries do do so.
"We are not always going to see eye-to-eye," said Vice-President Biden. "We are not always going to see things exactly the same, but we have very important economic and political concerns that warrant that we work together."
Critics of China, particularly on its human rights record, accuse Washington of turning a blind eye to many abuses. Biden said that the U.S. has made clear to Beijing when it feels that rights are not being respected and said that the cases of several prominent dissidents had been raised.
"We see our advocacy for human rights as a fundamental aspect of our foreign policy," he said.
Biden said Obama pressed Xi on a range of "greatest concerns", from the undervaluing of China's currency to Beijing joining Moscow in vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria.
The principal focus is on trade issues between the world's two largest economies ? in part because it is a growing domestic political issue. President Obama's Republican rivals are accusing the president of failing to stand up to China over its undervalued currency, which makes its exports cheap. They also accuse Beijing of other unfair trade practices.
Several Republican congressional candidates have run attack adverts accusing the Democrats of exporting jobs to China. Last week, a candidate for the Senate, Pete Hoekstra, caused controversy by running an advert during the Super Bowl in which a Chinese woman rides a bicycle through a paddy field and says: "Your economy gets very weak. Ours gets very good".
Biden, at a lunch for Xi, spoke directly of differences over trade.
"Even as our cooperation grows, the U.S. and China will continue to compete. As Americans, we welcome competition ? it's part of our DNA," he said.
"Cooperation, as you and I have spoken about, can only be mutually beneficial if the game is fair."
Xi responded by saying that differences on trade should be resolved through negotiation.
"We should address each other's economic and trade concerns through dialogue and conversation, not through protectionism," he said.
The Chinese vice-president acknowledged U.S. concerns before he arrived. In a written response to questions from the Washington Post, he said differences are inevitable.
"Frictions and differences are hardly avoidable in our economic and trade interactions. What is important is that we properly handle these differences through coordination based on equality, mutual benefit, mutual understanding and mutual accommodation. We must not allow frictions and differences to undermine the larger interests of our business cooperation," he said.
"We have taken active steps to meet legitimate U.S. concerns over IPR [intellectual-property rights] protection and trade imbalance, and we will continue to do so. At the same time, we hope the United States will take substantive steps as soon as possible to ease restrictions on hi-tech exports to China and provide a level playing field for Chinese enterprises to invest in the United States."
China has its own complaints, not least America's shift of military resources to the Asia-Pacific region, including plans for a new military base in Australia. Xi is to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey at the Pentagon, which is concerned about China's rapidly expanding military influence in Asia.
On Wednesday, Xi is flying to Muscatine, Iowa, to be reunited with a group of Americans he met during a visit in 1985 as a regional official in an agriculture mission. On that occasion he stayed with an ordinary family, sleeping in a room surrounded by the children's Star Trek figures.
Xi told the Washington Post that visit had a profound effect on his view of the U.S.
"I was deeply impressed by America's advanced technology and the hospitable and industrious American people. That visit drove home to me the importance of closer exchanges between our peoples and gave me a better understanding of China-U.S. relations," he said.
Then he goes on to Los Angeles where he will meet business leaders and visit a school teaching Chinese.
Intellpuke: You can read this article by Guardian U.S. correspondent Chris McGreal, reporting from Washington, D.C., in context here: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/14/obama-friendly-firm-xi-jinping
Source: http://freeinternetpress.com/story/President-Obama-Friendly-But-Firm-With-Xi-Jinping-During-White-House-Visit-33926.html
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