Hu Jintao arrives in US for state visit

Associated press and staff

 
The Chinese president Hu Jintao has arrived in the United States for a four-day state visit.

Jintao was met by US vice president Joe Biden at Andrews air force base in Maryland.

Tonight he will have a private White House dinner with Barack Obama, which will also include secretary of state Hillary Clinton, national security adviser Tom Donilon and Hu aides.

Tomorrow he will be formally welcomed with a state arrival ceremony and full state banquet, which will return the hospitality that Obama was shown at a state dinner in Beijing on his 2009 visit.

A personal relationship between the two leaders is important for co-operation on several pressing issues in the time left on both of their terms in office, Asia watchers say. The visit is probably the last to Washington as president for Hu, a hydroelectric engineer who has ruled since 2002. He is expected to relinquish his leadership of the Communist Party next year and the presidency the year after.

"The only way you can move policy is at the very top, and it requires a personal connection," said Victor Cha, director of Asian affairs on Bush's national security council and currently a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Maybe this visit will be an opportunity to create some of that."

Wednesday's schedule calls for a formal arrival ceremony, a one-on-one meeting between Obama and Hu, an expanded meeting between them that includes aides, a news conference and, finally, dinner.

It will be Obama's third state dinner. He held dinners for India in 2009 and Mexico last year.

For each dinner, Michelle Obama is responsible for planningalong with the White House social secretary, and they recruit a guest chef to help prepare the meal. There is no word yet on who might cook for Hu.

In fact, in keeping with its usual practice, the White House hasn't released any details about the menu, the decor, where dinner will be served or what Michelle Obama will wear and doesn't plan to until a few hours before Wednesday's event begins.

But some details have begun to trickle out.

House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, has declined an invitation to attend, according to his spokesman and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. Members of the congressional leadership from both parties were invited, Gibbs said.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck noted Hu's plans to visit Congress the day after the dinner.

"The speaker is looking forward to his meeting with President Hu on Thursday, which he believes will be a productive setting for substantive discussions," Buck said.

The White House seemed miffed by Boehner's decision.

"We have invited leaders from both parties and we hoped that because of the importance of the (US-China) relationship that they would attend," Gibbs said today.

Meanwhile, workers have begun preparing the south lawn for Hu's arrival and US and Chinese flags are flying from light posts along Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol.

Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed President Jiang Zemin and his wife, Madame Wang Yeping, in October 1997, serving chilled lobster in tarragon sauce, pepper-crusted Oregon beef and whipped Yukon Gold potatoes to more than 230 guests seated elbow-to-elbow in the East Room.

Dinner tickets were highly sought and the lucky holders pointed to one of Clinton's chief aims: access to China's consumer market of more than 1 billion people. The guest list included CEOs from Xerox, PepsiCo, Walt Disney Co. and General Motors Corp.  Guardian.co.uk