Analysis: The delicate balancing act between harmony and hard policies

Published on Wednesday 19 January 2011 15:49

For President Obama's administration, President Hu Jintao's visit offers a platform to try to make progress on issues troubling their countries: currency, the trade imbalance, human rights and China's military stance. But Mr Hu has a comparatively low-key message, intoning his favourite idea: harmony.

Over the past few years, it has become a catchword of his administration, used often when he is confronted with thorny situations that elude ready solutions, like domestic social unrest or a rising China's impact on the outside world. The term is sometimes used ironically - websites that suddenly disappear are "harmonised away" - and sometimes officially as a goal - for a "harmonious society".

"China and the United States have major influence in international affairs and shoulder important responsibilities in upholding world peace and promoting common development," Mr Hu said this week.

Some say that this reflects a weakened president. After a year of foreign policy mis-steps that have allowed the US to regain influence in Asia, Mr Hu is also on his way out - he is expected to be replaced in less than two years. One Beijing-based western diplomat said: "He wants to go out with the country's most important bilateral relationship intact."

But Mr Hu's calm also reflects a more confident China. Scott Kennedy, a Chinese scholar at Indiana University, noted recently that Mr Hu's comments are at odds with his host's.

Mr Kennedy wrote: "(Hu's] description of China took it as a given that China is a leading global power and a central member of the international system, and such standing is not conditional on US approval."

China has emphasised the need to allow Mr Hu to enjoy the trappings of a formal state visit. Chinese officials are still smarting after the Bush administration decided not to call Mr Hu's first visit as president five years ago a state visit.

Obama administration officials say that this time, the ceremonial aspects of Mr Hu's trip have in some ways eclipsed the policy items on the agenda.