Yesterday, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived at the White House, where President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed him to D.C. There was a state dinner last night—a glittery "old school" event with Chinese stars like Jackie Chan, Michelle Kwan, B.D. Wong, and Yo Yo Ma—where Obama toasted, "While it's easy to focus on our differences of culture and perspective, let us never forget the values that our people share: a reverence for family; the belief that, with education and hard work and with sacrifice, the future is what we make it; and most of all, the desire to give our children a better life," and cited a Chinese proverb, "If you want one year of prosperity, then grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, then grow trees. But if you want 100 years of prosperity, then you grow people." (And Michelle Obama wore a red Alexander McQueen gown.) But it wasn't all cheer: Obama did bring up human rights issues in China.
In the afternoon press conference with Hu, Obama said, "China has a different political system than we do. China is at a different stage of development than we are. We come from very different cultures and with very different histories. But as I’ve said before, and I repeated to President Hu, we have some core views as Americans about the universality of certain rights — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly — that we think are very important and that transcend cultures."
Obama also reportedly brought up the case of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiabo with Hu, and Hu himself said, "a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights." Western media reporters also directly asked Hu about human rights issues, but the Chinese President ignored the question—the lack of simultaneous translation appeared to benefit Hu since he didn't have to answer questions quickly and Rush Limbaugh since the conservative commentator could do his Chinese impression—"Ching chong ching chong ching chong."
Today, Hu will meet with Congress and business leaders; according to the Washington Post, "A bipartisan collection of congressmen are already voicing concern China's handling of its domestic economy and its alleged human rights abuses." Well, at least Hu has the multimedia marketing campaign in Times Square promoting China.
