Washington: President Obama used his summit on Wednesday with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to place the issue of human rights front and center in the US relationship with the world’s preeminent ascending power. And Hu, in a rare concession, acknowledged that China needs to make more progress.
On a day that combined billion-dollar deals with talks on nuclear proliferation and trade imbalances, Obama’s calls for a freer China constituted a significant shift from his previous statements playing down US concerns.
In a series of public remarks made in Hu’s presence, the US president urged his counterpart to allow more freedom and to open a real dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, arguing that only countries that respect the rights of all their citizens can be truly stable. In a private meeting with Hu, officials said, Obama raised the case of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist currently imprisoned in China.
“Societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful, and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all people are upheld, including the universal rights of every human being,” Obama said at a welcome ceremony on the White House lawn.
Later, at a news conference, the Chinese president initially did not answer a reporter’s question about human rights. But prodded again, he broke with past statements made by Chinese leaders traveling outside China, admitting that his nation has work to do when it comes to building a freer society.
“China is a developing country with a huge population, and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform,” he told reporters. “In this context, China still faces many challenges in economic and social development. And a lot still needs to be done in China, in terms of human rights.”
Chinese President Hu Jintao is to meet US politicians after White House talks aimed at smoothing differences between the world’s two biggest economies.
Congress leaders have been critical of China’s currency, the yuan, saying it is kept artificially low to help Chinese exporters.
Newly released figures show China’s GDP grew a faster-than-expected 10.3% in 2010, defying slowdown expectations.
Mr Hu is due to hold separate talks with Republican House Speaker John Boehner – the third-ranking US elected official – and Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader.
Both men snubbed the Chinese leader by turning down invitations to Wednesday’s White House dinner in his honour, with Mr Reid going so far as to call Mr Hu “a dictator” in an interview with KSNV television, before retracting the remark.
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