BEIJING — President Hu Jintao, who travels to Washington this week for a state visit after a year marked by disputes and tension with the United States, said the two countries could mutually benefit by finding “common ground” on issues from fighting terrorism and nuclear proliferation to cooperating on clean energy and infrastructure development.
“There is no denying that there are some differences and sensitive issues between us,” Hu wrote to questions from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. “We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship and lose from confrontation.”
To enhance what he called “practical cooperation” on a wide range of issues, Hu urged an increase in dialogues and more “mutual trust.” He said, “We should abandon the zero- sum Cold War mentality.” In possibly a rejection of U.S. criticisms of China’s internal affairs, Hu said the two should “respect each other’s choice of development path.”
Hu took aim at the international currency system, dominated by the dollar, calling it a “product of the past.” China has moved to make its currency, the renminbi, or RMB, convertible on international markets, and Hu pointed to Chinese efforts to boost its use in trade and investment. But he cautioned against any suggestion that the renminbi, also called the yuan, might soon become a new reserve currency. “It takes a long time for a country’s currency to be widely accepted in the world,” Hu said.
Hu, secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party since 2002 and China’s president since 2003, rarely speaks in interviews or gives press conferences.
Hu made an official visit to the White House in 2006, but President George W. Bush denied him the privilege of a full state visit, offering only a lunch. He was in Washington in April for President Barack Obama’s nuclear security summit.
The Obama administration plans to use the summit to refocus attention on China’s record on human rights and political freedoms, after spending much of the past two years seeking to engage the Chinese leadership on a broad array of global issues such as climate change, helping to stabilize the global economy and dealing with the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.
The human rights issue was in the spotlight in October when a jailed Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
