Hu Jintao in Seattle, promoting trade relations
(chinadaily.com.cn/agencies)
Updated: 2006-04-19 08:59 President Hu will be wined and dined later Tuesday at the home of the world's
richest man, Microsoft's Bill Gates, in a 100-seat dinner hosted by
Gregoire.
Prior to that he will be given a tour of Microsoft's Home of
the Future, a model of the type of high-tech home the company envisions will be
used in years to come.
Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates (C) watches as Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands
with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during Hu's visit to Microsoft
headquarters in Redmond, Washington, April 18, 2006. Hu spent about an
hour visiting and viewing some of the new technologies being developed for
future homes. [Reuters] |
On Wednesday, Hu will be taken on a tour of The
Boeing Company's Everett plant by Boeing's commercial airplane president Alan
Mulally.
Starting his visit with Boeing and Microsoft -- two high-tech
companies with strong interests in China -- appears to be an attempt by Beijing
to show the United States that trading with China also helps Americans, analysts
said.
Boeing has benefited from China's numerous purchases of its
aircrafts, including a deal for 80 planes worth 4.6 billion dollars earlier this
month.
Microsoft reaped the rewards of a new rule that requires all new
computers made and sold in China to be pre-installed with authentic software to
prevent piracy, signing a major deal Monday with China's best-selling PC maker
Lenovo to pre-install its operating systems, Seattle media said.
In
Seattle, Hu will meet with leaders of companies at the forefront of
technological development, which fits with China's goal of transitioning from
being a mainly low-wage manufacturing based economy to an innovation-driven
economy.
The Chinese president will move to the east coast in an
itinerary that includes a speech at Yale University, Bush's alma mater, to
explain China's sustainable and peaceful growth strategy.
Hu's fifth summit with Bush since last May is likely to cover talks on
Taiwan, trade, intellectual property rights and China's currency.
Also expected to be on the agenda are the nuclear standoffs on the Korean
Peninsula and in Iran.
"I intend of course to bring the subject up of Iranian ambitions to have a
nuclear weapon with Hu Jintao this Thursday," Bush told reporters on Tuesday at
the White House. "We'll continue to work diplomatically to get this problem
solved."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang yesterday reaffirmed that
Taiwan would be one of the main topics of discussion when the two leaders meet.
"The Taiwan question is the most important and sensitive core issue in
China-US relations," he told a regular press conference.
"We cannot sideline the Taiwan question."
In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told a news briefing on
Monday that "President Bush is looking forward to seeing President Hu later this
week."
"This is an important strategic relationship we have. There are many areas of
common concern where we are working together."
Although the two countries
also have a number of differences, the spokesman said, the US-Chinese
relationship "has moved forward and matured to a point where we can speak openly
and candidly about those disagreements."
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