For starters, Hu was unhappy that President George W. Bush opted for lunch over a state dinner.
Bush held few state dinners as president, preferring workmanlike visits with foreign leaders over eating meals in a tuxedo. He also was sensitive to concerns in the United States about human rights in China and was reluctant to be seen as going all out for Hu with a state dinner.
But then Hu’s pomp-filled welcome on the South Lawn was spoiled when a woman protesting China’s treatment of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement began shouting during his remarks. Bush apologized after he and Hu went into the Oval Office.
Compounding the insult, a White House announcer called China the “Republic of China.’’ That’s the formal name for Taiwan, the democratic island that autocratic China claims as its territory.
Tonight’s affair will return the hospitality that Obama was shown at a state dinner in Beijing on his November 2009 visit.
A personal relationship between the two leaders is important for cooperation on several pressing issues in the time left on both of their terms in office, Asia watchers say.
The visit is probably the last to Washington as president for Hu, a hydroelectric engineer who has ruled since 2002. He is expected to relinquish his leadership of the Communist Party next year and the presidency the year after.
“The only way you can move policy is at the very top, and it requires a personal connection,’’ said Victor Cha, director of Asian affairs on Bush’s National Security Council and currently a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Maybe this visit will be an opportunity to create some of that.’’
Hu is getting plenty of face time with Obama, including a second dinner. The private meal yesterday in a more intimate White House dining room after Hu landed in Washington also included Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, national security adviser Tom Donilon, and Hu aides.
Today’s schedule calls for a formal arrival ceremony, a one-on-one meeting between Obama and Hu, an expanded meeting between them that includes aides, a news conference and, finally, dinner.
