Chinese President Hu comes to Washington (Seattle that is…)

Today, President Hu Jintao begins his first state visit to the United States as China’s head of state. However, it reflects not only America’s waning political influence but also China’s rising economic status that Hu’s welcome dinner will be hosted, not at the White House in Washington, DC by the world’s (erstwhile) most powerful man, President George W. Bush, but at the private mansion in Seattle, Washington by the world’s richest man, Microsoft’s Chairman Bill Gates.

Although, to be fair, it can be argued that Hu and Gates have established a business relationship that emulates the political relationship Bush and British PM Tony Blair leveraged to invade Iraq. Indeed, as I lamented in this previous article, Hu and Gates have already leveraged their ties to help Hu’s government spy on and even arrest Chinese citizens who used their computers in ways the Communist Party deemed subversive (e.g., by merely expressing a wish for more democratic freedoms).

But Hu’s visit is all about allaying American concerns about China’s ballooning trade surplus, which was a record $11.2 billion in March (more than double the amount for the same month last year). And, Gates and fellow CEOs from practically every fortune 100 company in America hope that Hu will show some gratitude for their contributions to his country’s surplus (and for Gates’ lavish hospitality) by announcing new trade policies that will open China’s markets to more of their products (indeed, including the beef Hu will probably dine on tonight) and services (especially in finance), and protect their trademark and intellectual properties from widespread piracy by Chinese “entrepreneurs”.

And, it’s only after Hu and America’s corporate titans have chewed over the meat and potatoes of Sino-US bilateral trade will Hu then lunch on leftovers with President Bush on Thursday. In fact, just as Bush’s first state visit to China was distinguished more by his bike ride with the Chinese Olympic cycling team than by his dealings with Hu, so too will Hu’s visit to America be distinguished more by his dinner with Gates than by his dealings with Bush.

Nevertheless, Bush will still have some juicy political bones to pick with Hu at their White House lunch. And he’ll probably salivate at the opportunity to still seem relevant to this Sino-US relationship by gnawing about the slow pace of democratic reforms in China, its human rights abuses and its refusal to allow the yuan (Chinese currency) to float on the open market. However, Bush will also be obliged to tango with Hu about China’s role in defusing nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula, its threats to move militarily to assert political control over Taiwan and its brazen checkbook diplomacy throughout the Americas. But, no matter how much Bush grinds his teeth or steps on Hu’s toes over these issues, I suspect Hu will be far too sated with the food for thought Gates fed him to show any real interest in anything Bush has to serve.

Of course, since he really has no political capital left to lose, perhaps Bush should put some ants in Hu’s pants…by inviting the exiled Tibetan religious leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as a surprise lunch guest. Imagine how interesting and newsworthy that lunch would suddenly become if the Dalai Lama could finally sit across a diplomatic table and ask a Chinese leader, Hu, to explain:

Why, if China respects his religion and religious freedom (as Hu insists), did it send communist troops to trample over defenseless Buddhist monks and occupy Tibet in 1950?

Why, if China respects his religion and religious freedom, did its leaders persecute him and his followers so much that tens of thousands of them were forced into exile?

Gyaltsen Norbu, 16, the Tibetan Buddhist chosen by the Chinese communists as Tibet’s next religious leader, making his first major appearance before an international audience last Thursday at the opening ceremony of the World Buddhist Forum in the resort city of Hangzhou southwest of Shanghai.

Why, if China respects his religion and religious freedom, did its (avowedly atheistic) leaders usurp his authority to anoint Gyalsten Norbu as Tibet’s 11th Panchen Lama and command him to parrot communist propaganda like:

Chinese society provides favourable environment for Buddhist belief [and that] Buddhists should be patriotic and defend the nation;

Whilst the Dalai Lama’s chosen successor remains under house arrest and is regarded as the world’s youngest political prisoner because he’s been there since 1995, when he was just six years old?

And, indeed, why, if China respects his religion and religious freedom, would Hu himself preside over the unveiling of the largest statue in all of China of the father of Chinese communism, the late Mao Zedong, right in the heart of Buddhist Tibet? (Incidentally, if nothing else, this eyesore should disabuse the Dalai Lama and his followers – especially high profile donors like actor Richard Gere – of any hope that His Holiness will ever return to Tibet or that this Buddhist country will ever become independent.)

Finally, if the Dalai Lama’s questions do not force Hu to cower away from the table with an acute case of political indigestion, perhaps Bush could serve the pièces de ré·sis·tance by putting the following questions before him:

Are you not aware Mr President that, despite its phenomenal growth, China has a ticking people bomb that is bound to explode and ca
use your booming economy to go bust? [As 60 Minutes reported last Sunday and as I commented last November]

And, are you not concerned that the unseemly gap between rich and poor that is now fueling terminal unrest all over China will eventually break your totalitarian control and give rise to the democratic freedoms your billion-plus peasant farmers crave? [As FOX News reported last Monday and I commented last December]

Bon appétit President Hu…

NOTE: I have linked to many previous articles today to put this complex, bipolar relationship between China and the United States into as comprehensive a context as possible. These two countries are destined to dominate world affairs for much, if not all, of the 21st Century. And, even though they will always find a way to do business together, how they manage their geopolitical and strategic relationships with other nations (e.g. how China deals with Taiwan and how the U.S. deals with North Korea; and how both deal with the superpower envy of Russia) will determine, in large measure, whether we suffer the cataclysmic anxieties of a Cold War redux or live in relative harmony with only occasional discordant notes from radical Islamists to tolerate.

Therefore, I encourage you to take a moment to read the articles I linked to as well.

ENDNOTE: It’s too bad we’ll never know what Hu said to dinner guests at the Gates mansion. Because those are the only words of truth and consequence that he will utter during this visit. Indeed, the hackneyed political platitudes coming out of both men’s mouths at their joint news conference on Thursday should produce enough flatulence to cause you to hold your nose and fog-up your TV screen.

President Hu Jintao, President George Bush, Bill Gates, Dalai Lama, Tibet