Obama, Chinese leader meet

STAR/TRIBUNES
By NEWS SERVICES
WASHINGTON - The leaders of the world's two most powerful economies unapologetically acknowledged their differences in a White House summit on Wednesday, but also stirred hopes for the U.S. and China to make progress on human rights and economic cooperation.

In a day of pomp and pageantry, President Obama placed the issue of human rights front and center in the U.S. relationship with the world's preeminent ascending power. And Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a rare concession, acknowledged that China needs to make more progress. He also agreed to ease Chinese regulations that limit foreign companies' access to Chinese markets.

The leaders, in their eighth meeting, held their ground on other issues. Obama repeated his assertions that China's currency is undervalued and that China needs to take steps to see that competition between the two superpowers is on a "level playing field."

Yet it appeared the summit would give Hu the respectful treatment he sought in the U.S. capital, and would satisfy Obama's need to look firm on the economic, security and human rights issues that have divided them. The White House also announced $45 billion worth of U.S.-China business deals, which Obama said would produce 235,000 U.S. jobs, many in manufacturing.

The two leaders met in what is likely to be their final summit, as Hu is expected to end his 10-year stewardship next year. After strife between the governments over economic, security issues and human rights, the summit was designed to stabilize the world's most important economic relationship. Both leaders emphasized their intentions to deepen their cooperation, even as they continue to disagree on many aspects of their complex relationship.

In a significant concession, China agreed to scrap a policy that favored Chinese technology companies for big government contracts, a move to help open markets to U.S. businesses, a senior administration official said. U.S. companies complained that the policy, known as "indigenous innovation," cut them out of one of China's most lucrative markets. Beijing also indicated it would ease regulations that have given an advantage to Chinese firms in government procurement.

Calling for the two countries to "break out of the old stereotypes that somehow China is simply taking manufacturing jobs and taking advantage of low wages," Obama said during a meeting with Hu and U.S. and Chinese business leaders that it was important for U.S. companies to be allowed into China's marketplace. The relationship between the powers, he said, must be "much more complex."

On a day that combined billion-dollar deals with talks on nuclear proliferation and trade imbalances, Obama's calls for a freer China constituted a significant shift from his previous statements playing down U.S. concerns. In a televised news conference, Obama called on China to live up to human rights values that he said were enshrined in the Chinese Constitution. He said history shows that "societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all people are upheld, including the universal rights of every human being."

Hu said China is a developing country at a "crucial stage of reform," and that "a lot needs to be done in China" regarding human rights. But he noted that China was willing to talk only within the confines of the "principle of noninterference in each other's internal affairs."

Administration officials said the human rights discussion continued in private as well, illustrating how a visit marked by public displays of harmony belied a more fractious relationship over matters that included North Korea and the Chinese currency. They said Obama pressed Hu specifically on China's imprisonment of its Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo.