Chinese President Hu Jintao is heading to the United States this week for the first state visit to the White House since 1997. Will the leaders of the two largest economies come to any conclusions?
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Now just yesterday here on China Take we spoke about a number of public statements by China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, calling for political reform. And the premier seems quite clear about what he means. In a recent CNN interview he said: "I believe I and all the Chinese people have such conviction that China will make continuous progress and the people's wishes and need for democracy and freedom are irresistible." While everyone in China is aware of and has benefited from economic reform over the past thirty years, what do the ordinary people understand by this phrase ‘political reform’? Well we went out on the streets of Beijing and asked.
President Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama at the White House this week put further strain on the Sino/US relationship. Beijing reacted angrily to the closed-doors meeting, by saying it had "seriously harmed" relations and summoning the American ambassador in Beijing to protest.
The denunciation came shortly after Obama pledged to support Tibetan rights in his White House talks with the leader of Tibetan Buddhist leader.
It's an issue that really pides American and Chinese opinion. CNN recently did a poll that showed the three quarters of Americans think Tibet should be an independent country. The poll also found that 53 percent of Americans think its more important to take a stand on human rights than to maintain good ties with China. Here, of course, people's opinions are very different.
Now we've already mentioned here on China Take an economics expert who recently suggested the Chinese people should be prepared to endure higher inflation for the sake of maintaining economic growth. According to Wang Jian from the National Development and Reform Commission economic growth should come first and the control of inflation be left aside for the time being. Which is all very fine for economists - but what about the ordinary man or woman in the street? How do they feel about inflation? And should the government concentrate on growing the economy first? Our researcher Aaron Peng went out on the streets of Beijing to find out.