Pride in president’s visit contrasts with earlier perceptions of souring relations with the US
PRESIDENT Hu Jintao’s state visit to Washington has been greeted with considerable pride in China and people see a high-profile state banquet as a significant reflection of the Asian country’s new superpower status in the world.
A gala banquet is a traditional way of cementing business relations in China, so the fact that President Barack Obama chose to honour Mr Hu with a state dinner is seen here as serious kudos.
A survey released earlier this week showed that more than half of the Chinese people believe that ties with the United States worsened last year and 80 per cent said Washington was to blame for deteriorating relations, but there was little evidence of this sour sentiment after three days of Mr Hu’s visit.
“This is good news, good for all of us. It’s great to see China taking part at a high level,” said one passenger awaiting a flight in Beijing airport, nodding his approval of a picture in a Beijing newspaper of the two presidents shaking hands.
The body language between the two leaders suggests a more relaxed meeting than the stiff encounter they had back in 2009 here in Beijing, and this too has been welcomed in China.
All the newspapers devoted their front pages to pictures of Mr Hu meeting Mr Obama and speaking at the official welcoming ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn.
“Leaders hail symbiotic ties,” ran the headline in the Global Times, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party.
The English-language China Daily newspaper gave over most of the front page to a big picture and report on the visit, emphasising an “historic masterstroke of China-US diplomacy,” as well as the $33.5 billion in business deals sealed by the sides during the visit.
What is notable about the reporting is how the visit is being depicted as a meeting of equals, highlighting how China’s international standing has been boosted by its proactive role in helping prop up the global economy in the years since the global financial crisis.
“Since their establishment in 1979, the China-US diplomatic relations have witnessed numerous ups and downs. Thanks to the courage, wisdom and patience on both sides, co-operation has now become the defining theme of the trans-Pacific interactions,” said an editorial carried on the Xinhua news agency. “Building on the same spirit, the latest Hu-Obama summit bears witness to the strategic foresight, political wisdom and global responsibilities of the leaders of the two great nations,” it said.
Mr Hu’s visit is intended to smooth relations between Beijing and Washington after a troubled period which has seen arguments over China’s currency and trade issues, arms sales to Taiwan, human rights questions and the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.
The US and China are the world’s two biggest economies and are increasingly dependent on each other. The US is one of China’s biggest markets, with €284 billion in annual trade largely in Beijing’s favour, and China is by far the largest foreign holder of US government debt.