Landmark trip looks to future
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Sources said Hu's visit will yield a number of agreements on bilateral trade, energy, environmental protection, infrastructure building, and cultural and personnel exchanges.
Purchases of Boeing aircraft and the building of a high-speed railway may be on the list of agreements, said sources. Diplomats from both countries have been negotiating a formal joint statement, but it remains to be seen whether Obama and Hu will issue a communique.
Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said that the two sides are still discussing the content of the statement.
According to Wang Fan, an international studies expert at China Foreign Affairs University, the US is now looking at China in the context of historic shifts in the balance of power, as it figures out a strategy for its China policy, and is therefore giving China unprecedented attention.
This is Chinese President Hu Jintao’s first state visit to the United States since Barack Obama took office as US president two years ago, but the pair have met seven previous times.
Analysts said the significance Washington is attaching to the visit also derives from the fact that it increasingly needs Beijing's help in managing global issues, such as piracy off the African coast, Iran's nuclear program and reinvigorating the world economy.
Also, given the background of the Democrats' poor showing in the mid-term election, Obama now faces huge domestic pressure, and is hoping to reap dividends from a successful visit by Hu. That means business contracts that bring jobs to the sluggish US economy, progress on some issues that has affected bilateral ties, including trade and the Korean Peninsula issue.
China is also keen to take the opportunity to win trust and dispel suspicion in the US, which leads the developed countries. China wants to foster a favorable environment for its development.
Meanwhile, as the two are now each other's second-largest trade partner, China views the US market as crucial to its sustainable economic development.
Hu, during his four-day trip, is expected to promote China's peaceful development in a speech to business leaders and opinion-makers in Washington on Thursday and to highlight the benefits of China's market and investment when visiting Chicago.
Before Hu's departure from Beijing, high-ranking officials from each side changed the harsh tone they adopted in 2010 and became more positive regarding bilateral cooperation.
A flurry of diplomatic efforts, either visits made or speeches given by keynote officials from each country, had already been arranged prior to the visit, shedding light on the importance each side attaches to it.
Three major figures in Obama's administration - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke - have successively delivered speeches on Hu's visit, a rare occurrence in US politics.
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