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The US-China relationship and India-US ties are on different scales, the White House said, asserting that the commercial diplomacy around the India trip of President Barack Obama was significant.
The state visit of the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, beginning today is different from Obama's November trip to India, it added. "It (Hu's US visit)'s a little different than our trip to India, in the sense that the economic relationship that we have with the Chinese is different on a scale with what we do with India, which is why some of the commercial diplomacy around the India trip was so significant," the White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, told reporters at his daily news conference.
"We continue to believe that American companies produce the best products in the world and that they have a demand from China," Gibbs said, hours before the Chinese President was to land at the Andrews Air Force Base Tuesday afternoon on his four-day State visit to the United States. Obama is hosting a State Dinner for Hu on Thursday, the first for a Chinese President in 13 years.
"Secretary Geithner discuss the steps, as you have for many months, on currency that need to take place; the role that the Chinese have to play in that region of the world in dealing with countries like North Korea, just as they have been helpful in dealing with sanctions at the UN. On previous actions of North Korea as well as sanctions around the Islamic Republic of Iran," Gibbs said.
"So there are a whole host of issues and topics that we anticipate that the two leaders will discuss tomorrow," he said in response to a question with regard to Obama Hu meeting on Wednesday at the White House. The US would continue to bring up the human rights issue with the Chinese leadership, he said. "The truth is we have met with them on many occasions. We had a state dinner in China. It was brought up before that. We've had bilateral meetings at economic summits like G-8, or G-20, where it's been brought up. I think the President's belief it is important to speak out, as he's done, and it's important to bring this up directly with them," Gibbs said.