President Hu’s US visit
Posted : April 26, 2006 at 10:16 am [America/Los_Angeles]
It was surely no accident that President Hu made his first stop in the U.S. in Washington State - not Washington, D.C. - to dine with Bill Gates, who gave him the “state dinner” that the Bush White House refused to extend. Why the Bush team was unwilling to host the Chinese president for a state dinner is beyond me. If I owed someone $1 trillion, I’d give him a state dinner. I’d also give him breakfast, lunch and Chinese takeout.
My only regret is that President Hu didn’t go home via California…China and California have a lot to talk about. California’s air pollution is increasingly made in China, and China’s environmental solutions are increasingly made in California.
— Thomas Friedman, “Go West, Old Men”
China demands respect. And quite frankly, it deserves it too. Not sure why President Bush and his administration, who have done remarkably well in improving US ties with India, did not feel the need to “engage” with the Chinese. Ofcourse, President Hu did not impress either. The whole thing is kinda sad. As Friedman rightly points out in the same article, “..Are there any two leaders in the world with more to talk about than Presidents Bush and Hu?..”
- Anand
Category: Chindia