Dollar, human rights, piracy Between Obama and Hu nodes at the top

NEW YORK - The advertising preceded the invasion of Chinese red-stained Times Square, with 300 advertising messages per day purchased by the People's Republic in one of the famous "light walls" of the square, New York. And after that spectacular prelude to last night he arrived, Hu Jintao, "the other owner of the world," the leader of the superpower is intended to dispute the primacy of America in the twenty-first century.

Coming down from the gangway of his jet at the airport in Washington, Hu Jintao has already grossed a result waiting for him there was Vice President Joe Biden, as required by the protocol of a "state visit". Beware of these so obsessive formalism of the ceremonial, the Chinese recall that the previous meetings between Barack Obama and Hu Jintao in America were "simple" talks on the sidelines of summit crowded (G20, nuclear disarmament), and the last time that Hu was received at the White House from George Bush in 2006, the landlord would not elevate the encounter to the status of "state visit".

To find an earlier ceremony this level must then go back to 1997, with Bill Clinton to receive Jiang Zemin. But China now is infinitely more powerful, indispensable, and thus also disturbing to Americans. Last night the first meeting was a working dinner between Obama and Hu this morning you open the summit itself, followed by a press conference at 13 (the 19 Italian).

Since yesterday evening, Obama made it clear that the distinguished visitor will not be a soft top. Disappointed by the first "proof of G2, not too irritated by the Chinese (the environment, money), the American president has adopted a more aggressive language. The usual request for a revaluation of the renminbi, has added more buying even more important.

Picking up the stress of the great American capitalism, the White House passes to the attack on piracy: Obama calls of the continuing plunder of intellectual property, starting with the US-made computer software. The blame also the generous policy of subsidized credit and fiscal subsidies to Chinese exports, which add another distortion in international trade, where China is already the lion's share.

Not just economy: even on human rights Obama has decided to raise the tone. On the other hand is the first time in history that an American president gets to the White House with all the honors a foreign leader that takes into prison a Nobel Peace Prize (the dissident Liu Xiaobo was not even allowed to travel to Oslo to receive the recognition ).

Among the other files already evoked from the dinner last night: the need for cooperation in the fight against climate change, the urgent need to counter nuclear proliferation, beginning with North Korea and Iran, the "mysteries" of Chinese reset ( The last fighter "invisible" J-20 tested a week ago in Chengdu), the disputes on territorial waters of concern to historical allies of Washington such as South Korea and Japan.

Even Hu Jintao immediately unsheathed his claims. Starting from the question of the dollar. Chinese President deemed dangerous, the strategy of "print money" as applied by the Federal Reserve to boost growth: in fact the immediate expansion of liquidity flows from the U.S. market on developing countries that offer better returns, and helps to export inflation in China .

In the longer term, Hu calls for assurances on the U.S. fiscal consolidation. As the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, the Chinese did not take lightly the recent warning of the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has raised the threat (however remote) of a "default". Hu Jintao will talk about this issue tomorrow, the third day dedicated to the federal capital: meet the Democratic and Republican congressional delegations in search of allies.

Paradoxically, it is the right, with his anti-state ideology and agenda of drastic cuts in public spending, the best ally of Hu. But before that meeting, tonight there will be a reception at the White House. Great social occasions where all the VIPs on Wall Street wanted to be invited to the dinner to honor the communist leader.

As the list of guests who compete to Hu, he has placed first for the two mayors of San Francisco and Oakland, both of Sino-American. Of course the grand reception this evening will not repeat the legendary gaffe Bush, who in 2006 mistook the anthem of China with that of Taiwan, and suffered the embarrassing intrusion of a dissident Falun Gong news conference in full.

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