This is very different treatment of China by this administration. Prior delegations to the USA have been shunned by the Bush Administration and others.
This is a significant mile marker for the USA. In past administrations the issues regarding Taiwan always prempted good diplomacy. This changes the tone between the USA and China for the better while increasing global stability.
It is not easy being communist and upto recent years China was primarily a third world country. It has more than a billion consumers within its borders and the Chinese government has been moving at a snails pace to modernize the quality of life for their people. There is a good chance that will change now.
When countries act in hostile manner toward each other, the possiblity of unstable relations leads to horrible consequences such as 'Cold War' tactics and 'posturing' with increased weapon stores. The 'welcoming' of China's President at a state dinner is a peace offering to which the American people hope to realize an increase in quality of life for its vast populous.
This is in combination with the new START Treaty with Russia and shows friendship to an ally of North Korea and Russia. It is all good.
...The White House (click title to entry - thank you) was private about the planning, for fear of saying or doing something that might offend China.
Mr Hu, wearing a business suit, posed at the North Portico of the White House with the US President, Barack Obama, in black tie.
Mr Obama's wife, Michelle, wore a flowing off-the-shoulder dress from the British design house of Alexander McQueen in red - considered a lucky colour in China.
On the list of 225 guests for Mr Obama's third state dinner were his two predecessors as Democrat presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
Guests from the art world and the media included the cellist Yo Yo Ma and Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue.
Wendi Deng, wife of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch, attended without her husband....
The TONE of the political Right Wing needs to change in the USA. They don't recognize the Obama Administration as legitimate while huge leaps in peaceful relations and productive economies are being made.
The article below is hostile. The Right Wing Media needs to realize changing the TONE isn't just about guns and killing. Until that happens there is no need for me to respect them.
Unless world leaders can discuss their differences and what that means to the global community on a greater scale then all hopes of peace are lost. In recognizing how far China has come and the future plans it has is to realize much is possible and that is how the 'hope' for human rights can change. I remind, the USA still has Gitmo and the 'mark' of torture and rendition to its name.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, at a joint press conference on his state visit to Washington, said that “a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights.” But Hu did not mean what you might think he means.
...You might think, for example, that one important thing that needs to be done is to free Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning political dissident who is serving an 11-year sentence. For co-authoring a public appeal for democratic freedoms, he was found guilty of “subversion of state power.”To President Obama, who pressed Hu for Mr. Liu’s release, that is an open-and-shut violation of a universal human right – the right to free speech.
To the Chinese president, however, it is a case of a subversive, treasonable plotting to bring down the state....
...You might think, for example, that one important thing that needs to be done is to free Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning political dissident who is serving an 11-year sentence. For co-authoring a public appeal for democratic freedoms, he was found guilty of “subversion of state power.”To President Obama, who pressed Hu for Mr. Liu’s release, that is an open-and-shut violation of a universal human right – the right to free speech.
To the Chinese president, however, it is a case of a subversive, treasonable plotting to bring down the state....
