http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aa5XEMU3z2fk
The U.S. and China, at odds over currency policy and trade, are now bickering
over another diplomatic issue -- what to call President Hu Jintao's planned
visit to Washington on April 20.
Chinese officials are describing the trip as a "state visit," Chu Maoming,
spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said. The White House isn't.
"We've told the Chinese that we understand that they label any visit by
President Hu to a foreign land as a 'state visit' under their definition of his
travel," Frederick Jones, a spokesman for President George W. Bush's National
Security Council, said.
"We have also told them that we will not be referring to it as a 'state
visit,' because each visit to the White House is unique," he added.
Hu will have lunch with President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and
dignitaries, rather than a formal dinner, the distinguishing feature of a state
visit.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked yesterday if the visit would be
accorded "state" status, responded, "It's a visit by President Hu is the way I
would describe it."
The protocol dispute, more than a matter of simple semantics, reflects the
tensions between the U.S. and China on a range of economic and foreign policy
matters and also the expectation from White House officials that they won't
achieve much during Hu's time in Washington.
Yuan Pressure
Congress is weighing punishing China with tariffs unless the Chinese
government loosens the managed exchange rate and allows the yuan to rise.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, now on a visit to China,
said at a congressional hearing on March 16 that "the fundamental disconnect
between us and China is that we have a conscience and they don't." Such an
anti-China atmosphere makes feting Hu with a black-tie, lavish state dinner at
the White House impossible, analysts said.
"They don't want to elevate" the visit, said Elizabeth Economy, director of
Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "There are enough
tensions within Congress, enough big-ticket issues that are likely to be
contentious."
China has complained at the World Trade Organization that the U.S. is using
national security exemptions in an "excessive way" to limit foreign purchases of
U.S. companies, undermining confidence in the U.S. business environment. The
comments follow the rejections of an attempt by Dubai, United Arab Emirates-
based DP World to buy U.S. port operations and a bid by Chinese- owned Cnooc
Ltd.'s to purchase Unocal Corp. for $18.5 billion last year.
No 'Hoopla'
Asked whether the White House's refusal to afford Hu the full honors of a
state visit wouldn't increase friction with China, Economy said, "When they
weigh the risks to the U.S.- China relationship against the domestic politics of
this particular point in time, certainly there's not much to sort of mandate a
reward for the Chinese."
"There's nothing that the Chinese bring to the table that allows the Bush
administration, frankly, to surround this visit with a lot of hoopla," she
added.
Still, Hu will receive full military honors at a White House arrival ceremony
that will feature a 21-gun salute. And he will stay at Blair House, the official
White House guest residence across Pennsylvania Avenue.
Bush has offered the state dinner honor to only a handful of visiting
leaders, including Mexican President Vicente Fox and Polish President Aleksander
Kwasniewski.
Hu hosted a dinner for Bush when he visited China last year. The Chinese
leader's visit to Washington was postponed from September because of Hurricane
Katrina.