A bad case of loving Hu
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, April 19, 2006
OK, I’ve been locked down with other journalists from all over the Pacific Rim for most of the past two days, while covering Chinese president Hu Jintao’s visit to Puget Sound. So forgive me if I’m a little out of touch.
(And before I go any further, a big shout-out to my new friends from the Starbucks at 75th and Evergreen, who found me some drip Sumatra that kept me sane during the four-plus hours we all stood around waiting for Hu to get to the Future of Flight Wednesday. Like China, you guys rock. By the way, turns out Howard Schultz favors drip Sumatra too.)
I wasn’t over at the Boeing factory to see Hu hug Machinist Paul Dernier in person, but we were watching on closed-circuit TV over at the museum I can tell you it made a HUGE impression on the Chinese press corps waiting there for Hu’s trade policy speech. They told me it was unprecedented, and they all wanted to know who Dernier was, and whether he was an important Boeing official. Call it the back slap heard round the world.
Generally speaking, Hu was a hit at Boeing, my Herald colleague Eric Fetters reported http://heraldnet.com/stories/06/04/20/100loc_a1boeing001.cfm :
Key Quote: “His government estimates that China’s airlines will need another 2,000 planes in the next 15 years to keep up with demand for air travel there. ‘This clearly points to a bright tomorrow for future cooperation between Boeing and China,’ Hu said. … ‘I also sincerely hope that the economic and trade relations between our two countries in general will prosper further and fly higher, just like a Boeing plane,’ he said to cheers from the audience.”
The BBC described Hu’s welcome here as “friendly.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4924430.stm
Key Quote: “A day after a tour of the Microsoft headquarters and a meeting with founder Bill Gates, Mr Hu toured the production lines of aircraft manufacturer Boeing. He praised ties between China and Boeing, calling co-operation between the two sides ‘a living example of the mutually beneficial cooperation and win-win outcome that China and the United States have achieved from trade.’”
I’m finding the Chinese coverage of Hu’s visit interesting. (With the time differences, stories of Hu’s visit to Boeing likely won’t show up till Friday.)
People’s Daily is all over it online, piggybacking on coverage from China Daily with both stories http://english.people.com.cn/200604/20/eng20060420_259720.html and photos http://english.people.com.cn/200604/20/eng20060420_259753.html .
Key Quote: “The president jokingly told Governor Christine Gregoire that he would work on finding hotel rooms for all 6 million Washington residents during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. … Governor Gregoire told reporters that she came out of meetings with a positive impression of China’s 63-year-old leader. ‘Here’s a warm individual on a personal level, one whom I believe is steadfast in sending the message to Americans that he believes in friendship, a peaceful relationship and that some of the fears we’ve heard are not well-founded,’ she said.”
China Daily also reported on Hu’s meeting with Bill Gates http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-04/19/content_571373.htm
Key Quote: “In Seattle’s Chinatown, many stores hung Chinese and U.S. flags to welcome Hu, and many in the crowd outside the stately Fairmont Hotel where Hu is staying were there to support the Chinese president, or simply curious about all the fuss.”
And here’s a big cheer for L.A. Times writer Sam Howe Verhovek, who got the Mukilteo dateline right. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-hu20apr20,1,4032445.story?coll=la-news-a_section (Although, note to Sam — it’s not Boeing’s Future of Flight.)
Key Quote: “But after basking in a mutual-admiration fest with Seattle moguls such as Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Starbucks’ Howard Schultz, Hu headed to the other Washington, where he is unlikely to receive quite so effusive a welcome from the Bush administration.”
And the Bangkok Post is carrying this English-language version of a report from Germany’s dpa. While its was all hugs and handshakes out here, in the capital, official Washington was scurrying to roll up and hide the red carpet. http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=91686
Key Quote: “‘While China’s economy has improved somewhat, the human rights situation remains abysmal,’ said Christopher Smith, a member of President George W Bush’s Republican party who heads the panel. ‘So-called economic reform has utterly failed to result in the protection of freedom of speech, expression or assembly,’ Smith told the hearing.”
One thing about this really jumps out at me — the disconnect between attitudes about China in this Washington and that one. Blue-state Democrats here are focused on business opportunities in China, while the Red-state Republicans inside the Beltway emphasize China’s poor human rights record. Here, a rank-and-file worker literally embraces the president of a nation whose low-paid laborers can produce simple airplane parts cheaply; in DC, the White House can’t be bothered to put on tuxes for a state dinner.
Makes me wonder — are we so out of step with the rest of America? Or is the rest of America out of step with us?
But that’s awful deep thinking for this simple country boy, and I’ll admit to understanding airplanes better than geopolitics. Besides, it’s lunch time, and I’ve got a hankering for dim-sum.
