CHINA: President Hu can expect a mixed political welcome in the US, writes Clifford Coonan in Beijing
President Hu Jintao is due to start his first formal visit to the US as China's head of state today with dinner at Bill Gates's digital "home of the future" in Seattle. Afterwards he will meet senior politicians from Washington state and sip a latte with Howard Schultz, chairman of the Starbucks chain of coffee shops.
It's a business focused and publicity conscious start to the trip ahead of the real political meat of the visit when Mr Hu meets President Bush on Thursday. The meeting takes place amid rising tension over the US trade deficit with China, questions about China's human rights record and its changing role in the world.
There is an ongoing diplomatic row over whether this trip constitutes a state visit at all.
While Gates and other business mandarins are happy to lay on dinner for Mr Hu, Mr Bush won't be staging a state banquet, much to Beijing's chagrin. The two leaders will do lunch instead.
Mr Hu will receive full military honours with a 21-gun salute when he arrives, and Washington says the reason there will be no formal dinner is that Mr Bush dislikes formalities, which past experience has shown to be true. However, the real reason is the distance between Washington and Beijing on a bagful of bilateral issues.
The Chinese have gone all out to smooth relations and prepare the ground for this vitally important visit. Beijing has released a number of key political prisoners; offered an olive branch to Taiwan, albeit one Taipei can in no way accept; signalled better relations with the Vatican and offered hope that the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, may visit China soon.
Plus, aviation officials have reached a tentative deal with Boeing to buy 80 aircraft worth €4 billion and the Chinese government has gone on a spending spree in the US in recent weeks, buying billions of dollars worth of farm equipment and medical supplies to help grease the wheels ahead of Mr Hu's arrival.
But the deficit is proving politically awkward for Mr Bush as there is a widespread perception that cheap Chinese goods are flooding the US market and causing job losses in the American heartland. It may have narrowed to €11 billion in February from nearly €15 billion in January, but the heat is still on.
Washington officials complain that China's currency has been kept artificially weak to boost the country's exporting performance and even though Beijing cut the renminbi's peg to the US dollar last summer, the currency has appreciated just 1.1 per cent. Some economists estimate the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 per cent.
Which means Mr Hu will come in for some stick over China's burgeoning economy, which he insists he can keep in check, even after revealing that economic growth accelerated to 10.2 per cent during the first three months of the year, compared to annual growth up from 9.9 per cent in the final quarter of last year.
Mr Hu insists China is not seeking growth at any cost and reiterated his "sustainable growth" message. "We do not want to pursue excessively rapid economic growth. What we are seeking is efficiency and quality of development," he said. "We are concerned about saving our resources, environmental protection and the improvement of our people's livelihood."
China's human rights record also irks the Americans, particularly with regard to China's treatment of underground religions - a subject close to the heart of Mr Bush, a devout Christian.
The Chinese are keen for relations with the world's superpower to remain warm without too many questions being asked about domestic issues. Their main hope from the visit is probably to get a statement from Mr Bush opposing Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian's pro-independence ambitions.