HIS FIRST trip to China will include a tour of the Forbidden City and some banquets of great Chinese food, but President Barack Obama’s visit to Beijing is no ordinary jaunt to the ancient capital.
Mr Obama landed in Shanghai yesterday to start his four-day visit during which he will try to balance his efforts to underline strong Sino-US ties with the need to emphasise Washington’s global role in the face of growing Chinese economic muscle.
International efforts to fight climate change, the need to co-ordinate action on global trouble spots such as North Korea and Iran, and concern over the value of the Chinese currency will all feature on the agenda.
The Nobel Peace laureate will also address human rights issues such as freedom of worship, although the American leader will avoid confrontation in the lead-in to his China visit, probably the most strategically important stopping point on his nine-day Asian jaunt. Saving face is important here.
On issues such as Tibet, he will have to deal with an at-times unsophisticated approach. A government spokesman said Mr Obama should be especially sympathetic to China’s opposition to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence, because he is a black president who lauded Abraham Lincoln for helping abolish slavery.
“He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln’s major significance for that movement,” said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.
“Lincoln played an incomparable role in protecting the national unity and territorial integrity of the United States,” he said.
Tibet is sure to be a knotty issue over the talks. Beijing calls the Dalai Lama a dangerous “splittist”, encouraging Tibetan independence, a charge he denies, saying he merely wants more autonomy for the region.
Mr Obama did not meet the Dalai Lama when he was in Washington in early October. But the Dalai Lama has said they may meet after this visit.
The International Campaign for Tibet has called on Mr Obama to use the opportunity of the Beijing meeting to focus on Tibet’s future.
In some ways, Mr Obama has little leeway to be too critical in public about China, as the country is the largest foreign lender to the US, and Washington has to encourage good relations with a rising superpower that is expected to become the world’s second largest economy next year.
Earlier, at a meeting in Singapore of 10 Southeast Asian nations, which included Burmese prime minister gen Thein Sein, Mr Obama called on Burma’s junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an unusual face-to-face interaction with a top leader of the ruling military.
Washington and Beijing have already had a row over exchange rates at the summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum in Singapore at the weekend. A reference to “market-oriented exchange rates” was cut from a communiqué issued at the end of two days of talks because the two sides could not agree on the wording.
For Americans, and for many countries in the region, the continuing low value of the Chinese yuan against other currencies is a major irritant. Since Mr Obama announced special duties of 35 per cent on Chinese-made tyre imports in September, there have been all manner of trade tensions around in various sectors.
Also, joblessness remains high in the US, so protectionism from the American side is likely to stay in place, the Chinese officials say.
Relations between Mr Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao are warm, and they have met three times. Mr Obama will try to enlist Beijing’s help on global economic recovery and on security issues such as deflating North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and also on dealing with Iran. “The United States does not seek to contain China,” Mr Obama said.