THE ONLY sightseeing stop on US president Barack Obama’s nine-day Asian visit is a trip today to the ancient Forbidden City in Beijing, but he penetrated one of the great bastions of contemporary Chinese power at an informal dinner with Chinese president Hu Jintao at the Diaoyutai state guest house last night.
The US leader comes into his first visit to China at a slight disadvantage compared to his predecessors – China is the largest foreign creditor of the US, which means Washington needs to encourage good relations with a country that is very much on the rise.
While tough talking lies ahead on trade imbalances, China’s undervalued currency, climate change and human rights, the tone so far has been positive and conciliatory, focusing on what both sides have in common.
“We do not seek to contain China’s rise. On the contrary, we welcome China as a strong and prosperous and successful member of the community of nations,” he told a gathering of hundreds of students at a “town hall” style questions and answer session in Shanghai.
China and the US were not “preordained” to be rivals and could solve more problems with co-operation, he said.
Earlier in the day, Mr Obama was welcomed at Beijing’s international airport for the second leg of his maiden China voyage by vice-president Xi Jinping, the man tipped as most likely to succeed Mr Hu in a leadership transition expected in 2012.
Mr Obama and Mr Hu have met three times already and will hold formal bilateral talks today.
So far Mr Obama’s visit has seen him politely, but firmly, defend calls for greater freedoms in China, especially more freedom of expression and an end to the great firewall of China, the state-imposed barrier to freedom on the internet.
China has more than 250 million internet users and employs some of the world’s tightest controls over what they see.
“I’m a big supporter of not restricting internet use. The more open we are, the more we can communicate and it also draws the world together,” he said.
He also spoke of his support for freedom of worship. “These freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation, we believe are universal rights; they should be available to all people, including ethnic and religious minorities.”
He sidestepped a question about whether he had heard of the great firewall of China, which appeared to be posed by the new US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman.
So far, the Nobel peace laureate has not mentioned Tibet or other sensitive issues that could have drawn ire ahead of talks with Chinese leaders today. He also reaffirmed his commitment to the one China policy on Taiwan.
The two leaders will meet for formal talks in the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square.
Mr Obama has already said he will bring up human rights, which is likely to irritate his hosts, although not to any major degree – this has long become routine in Sino-US dialogue, and rarely raises expectations on the US side nor hackles on the Beijing side. Nor does it appear to deliver much progress although individual cases are likely to be discussed behind closed doors.
On economic matters, China’s commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian has bluntly rejected calls to raise the value of the yuan, which would make the country’s exports relatively more expensive, even though this is a step Mr Obama has urged to correct imbalances in the global economy.
China has had a huge trade surplus with the US and is also the world’s largest foreign holder of US government bonds.
Politically, it will be important to observe if Mr Hu and Mr Obama see eye-to-eye on the burning strategic issues in the region, specifically the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea. Climate change is also going to feature on today’s agenda, and it is here that the two countries may find the greatest level of agreement.