Steering away for a while from the diplomatic-speak characteristic of a Chinese leader, Xi recounted at length a personal story about how, as an official serving in the Chinese province of Fujian in 1992, he had helped an American widow reunite with the elderly friends of her husband who had lived as a child in the province.
BY MATTHEW PENNINGTON | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — For Americans looking at the U.S. visit of China’s likely future leader for a clue about where relations between the two nations might be headed, the signal has been clear: No change in substance, but perhaps a change in style.
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping toed the line set by the man he is set to succeed as Communist Party chief in the fall, Hu Jintao, who made a grand U.S. state visit a year ago.
Xi, who is expected to become president in 2013, made clear that China wants a deeper relationship with the United States and even welcomes its engagement in the Asia-Pacific, as long as it respects China’s interests and concerns in its own neighborhood.
“It was a scripted trip without surprises,” said Jeff Bader, East Asia policy director during the first two years of the Obama administration. “He obviously wasn’t here to make policy, or make decisions or alter positions on issues. He is not the No. 1 yet and he doesn’t want to prejudice his chances of being No. 1.”
But while Xi, 58, has said little new — and did little to narrow the gaping differences that exist between the U.S. and China on issues such as human rights — he made a conscious effort to appear less remote than the stiff and aloof Hu.
“He’s more interactive than past Chinese leaders. He looks you in the eye, and you feel he’s conversing with you,” said Bader, who spoke briefly with Xi on Wednesday.
Mindful that Xi likely will lead China for the next decade, Washington pulled out the stops to make him feel welcome. He held a long meeting with Obama and received a 19-gun salute at the Pentagon — unprecedented for a visiting vice president.
His two-day swing through the power centers of Washington was followed by a trip Wednesday to Muscatine, Iowa, where Xi visited in 1985 as a 31-year-old, county-level official to learn about crop and livestock practices.
In Muscatine, Xi visited with some of the people he’d spent time with during the 1985 trip. He also was greeted by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, and sat down for tea with the residents while photographers and video crews recorded the interaction.
“I’m flabbergasted that he would take time out of his busy schedule and come back to Muscatine,” said Eleanor Dvorchak, whose family hosted Xi for two nights during the visit 27 years ago.
The Iowa trip in particular will be another opportunity for Xi to show a more personal side and appear less wooden than Hu. He will round of his U.S. visit in California.
Before leaving for Iowa, Xi, who has a daughter at Harvard University, used the main policy speech of his U.S. visit to call for more people-to-people ties between the world’s two largest economies.
Steering away for a while from the diplomatic-speak characteristic of a Chinese leader, Xi recounted at length a personal story about how, as an official serving in the Chinese province of Fujian in 1992, he had helped an American widow reunite with the elderly friends of her husband who had lived as a child in the province.