Obama prods China on currency, human rights, Tibet
BY ANDREW HIGGINS
AND ANNE E. KORNBLUT
The Washington Post
BEIJING - Describing ties with China as "never more important to our collective future," President Barack Obama mixed praise for Chinese economic triumphs Tuesday with gentle prodding on its currency, human rights and Tibet.
Talks in Beijing with Chinese President Hu Jintao produced pledges of cooperation on climate change, the economy and even military relations but yielded no breakthroughs on the global headaches Washington wants Beijing to help relieve.
A stiff joint appearance in the Great Hall of the People overlooking Tiananmen Square crystallized the state of the relationship between the two world powers: increasingly important to both countries, but also curiously bereft of warmth or intimacy.
Hu, speaking first, said that as the world economy "has shown some positive signs of stabilizing and recovering," it is important for both countries to "oppose and reject protectionism in all its forms." Obama called climate change and nuclear proliferation "challenges that neither of our nations can solve . . . alone."
"I spoke to President Hu about America's bedrock beliefs that all men and women possess certain fundamental human rights," Obama said. "We do not believe these principles are unique to America, but rather they are universal rights and that they should be available to all peoples, to all ethnic and religious minorities."
Later, serenaded by the People's Liberation Army, Obama attended a state dinner hosted by Hu last night, the major social event of his eight-day swing through Asia. Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman and the rest of the delegation dined on Chinese-style steak, stir-fried wild rice, roast grouper and ice cream.
In their earlier joint appearance, Obama and Hu read prepared remarks and stood impassively while the other spoke. At the end, they left without taking questions from reporters.
Chinese state-run television carried the joint appearance live, including Obama's pitch for "universal rights" and talks between Beijing and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The broadcast contrasted with limited Chinese media coverage of Obama's tightly choreographed town hall-style meeting with Chinese students in Shanghai on Monday.
But the official Chinese news coverage that followed yesterday's Great Hall of the People event focused on one part of Obama's message: that the United States accepts Tibet as part of China. "Obama says U.S. recognizes Tibet as part of China," read the headline on China's state-run New China News Agency, ignoring his repeated call for universal human rights.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration had not expected "that the waters would part and everything would change over our almost two-and-a-half day trip to China."
