Obama, Hu envision cooperative future

U.S. President Barack Obama is to spend his final day in China Wednesday meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao and visit the Great Wall before heading to South Korea for the final leg of his Asia trip.
On Tuesday Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao said China and the United States, the largest producers of greenhouse gases, will team up to fight climate change and create clean energy. The two leaders said their nations will cooperate to advance technologies and work toward a global agreement on reducing carbon emissions.
Their declaration comes ahead of next month's U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The world's top economic powers, including the U.S., recently acknowledged at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit that there's no hope of a major breakthrough on climate change by year's end.
The aim is to produce a pact over a longer period, a strategy dubbed "one agreement, two steps."
In addition to climate change, trade, nuclear proliferation and the sticky issue of human rights were also addressed during their talks, they said.
The two leaders "talked about continuing to build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship between our nations," according to Obama, who said he welcomed China's desire for a greater role in world affairs.
"China and the United States share extensive common interests and broad prospects for cooperation on a series of major issues important to mankind's peace and stability and development," Hu said. He named the economy, climate change and cultural exchanges among those issues.The U.S. delegation was met by an honor guard at the Great Hall of the People, and Obama shook hands with Hu and other top Chinese officials before the two leaders went behind closed doors. It was their fifth meeting in the past year, and they made no public statements beforehand.
On economic and trade issues, Hu called for Beijing and Washington to build a positive relationship in the 21st century, to build a partnership.
"Our two countries need to oppose and reject protectionism and all its manifestations," Hu said.
Sentiment favoring protectionism has grown in the United States, as hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese products pour in each year. Some analysts say the Chinese goods are artificially cheap and come at the expense of American jobs.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday found that 71 percent of Americans consider China an economic threat to the United States, with two-thirds considering it a source of unfair competition for U.S. companies.
The survey also found 51 percent of the U.S. public consider China a military threat, with 47 percent disagreeing. That 4-point margin is within the poll's 4.5 percent sampling error.
But the economic relationship serves both nations.
The United States is a ready market for Chinese products, while China is a major purchaser of the U.S. Treasury bonds that finance America's budget deficit. In the midst of a global economic recession, Washington and Beijing are in "a mutual hostage situation," former Bush administration China analyst Victor Cha said.
"China needs to purchase these Treasuries in order to maintain a strong dollar. Otherwise, the value of their foreign currency holdings goes down dramatically," Cha told CNN. "We need China in order to finance a lot of the deficit spending we're doing now. It's very much intertwined in a way that two countries in the history of international relations have not been intertwined."
China is also an important player in the diplomatic showdowns over nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and holds one of five permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council. China is North Korea's closest ally and has played a key role in the six-party talks aimed at convincing Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
Hu said Tuesday that China is committed to dialogue to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, adding that nuclear non-proliferation in Asia and the Persian Gulf is important.
The issue of human rights has often been a sticking point between Beijing and Washington. China regularly cracks down on its religious and ethnic minorities.
Obama encouraged China on Tuesday to resume talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader. The issue is such a source of friction that Obama didn't meet with the Dalai Lama during his recent visit to Washington so as not to inflame the situation.
Although Hu said China was willing to discuss issues such as human rights and religion to broaden understanding between the nations, he said each side had agreed to respect the other's cultural sovereignty.
The day was not purely about politics. After talks with Hu, Obama paid a visit to the Forbidden City. Also on the schedule was a state dinner to be hosted by Hu and meetings with parliamentary leader Wu Bangguo.
After his visit to the Great Wall, Obama travels to Seoul, South Korea, where he will meet Thursday morning with President Lee Myung-bak.