Hu Jin Tao’s Visit to U.s.a
by "We want to sell you all kinds of stuff," Obama said to Hu with a smile. "We want to sell you planes, we want to sell you cars, we want to sell you software."
Helping American companies sell more to China’s mother lode of 1.3 billion potential consumers was at the top of the president’s to-do list at this summit. After all, China is now the world’s second-largest economy after the United States.
But the U.S. and China now are intertwined on a complex web of issues, from security to human rights, and Obama raised all of them during his talks with the Chinese president.
So, how did his “sales job” go?
Economic issues
Obama was eager to tout $45 billion in U.S. export deals to China, which he said would create 235,000 American jobs. Some of those deals were already in the works but were announced at the summit to create a bigger bang.
On the hot-button issue of China’s undervalued currency, Obama noted that China has allowed the yuan to increase in value by 3.6%. “There has been movement,” he said, “but it’s not as fast as we want.”
On trade, the American president racked up some points, winning promises from the Chinese to address the core concerns of U.S. businesses:
– Strengthening enforcement of intellectual property rights for American products sold in China.
– Assuring market access for American goods.
– Changing China’s “indigenous innovation,” which requires China to purchase only foreign products designed in China.
– Demanding Chinese government agencies purchase only legal — not bootleg — software.
A senior administration official tells CNN the Chinese promise on “indigenous innovation” was “very positive” but there was still more to be done on protection for intellectual property and government procurement.
Some of the economic wins for the president came at the 11th hour, after difficult negotiations at senior levels. That’s not uncommon at summits, this official says.
“They (the Chinese) wanted to give their positives to President Obama directly,” he says. “This was a summit and they wanted to underscore that these were issues to be dealt with by their president and our president together.”
Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Thursday praised Beijing for making “significant commitments to protect intellectual property and modify discriminatory practices on government purchases.”
But he sees storm clouds on the horizon regarding China’s currency.
“Congress is growing increasingly impatient,” he said, “and absent sustained progress, will likely take matters into its own hands in the coming months.”
Security
Obama also moved Hu a bit on North Korea, winning a statement of “concern” over the North’s claim that it is enriching uranium.
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