BEIJING, Nov 14 — A year ago, Chinese editor Han Manchun was so excited after reading United States President Barack Obama's autobiography, The Audacity Of Hope, that he had his company publish a Chinese edition.
With 130,000 copies already sold, the 28-year-old editor of the Law Press of China has ordered an extra 5,000 books this week to meet an expected surge of interest during Obama's maiden visit to China starting tomorrow.
If that and the buzz on the Internet are anything to go by, the Chinese in the street are as curious about Obama now as they were amazed a year ago by the fact that Americans elected a president from a minority race.
The websites seeking questions for Obama's scheduled 'town hall' meeting with young Chinese in Shanghai next Monday are being flooded with queries for the President on anything from his stance on Tibet and trade protectionism to “what do you think of comrade Mao Zedong?”
That session, which US diplomats are pushing to be broadcast live on TV, will allow the eloquent Obama to directly engage young Chinese.
The four-day trip, hailed as one that will set the tone for ties between the world's largest and third-largest economies, comes at a time when bilateral relations are at their strongest in decades — though still troubled by trade and military tensions.
Obama's comments early this week, casting the bilateral relationship as a “strategic partnership”, have been largely welcomed by Chinese analysts, who see the US raising the importance of ties with China by a notch.
Professor Shi Yinhong, director of the Centre for American Studies at Beijing's Renmin University, said: “It's worth noting that he called China a vital partner and said that competition, which exists in reality, should be friendly.”
China has also shown its goodwill ahead of the visit by signalling two days ago that it was ready to let the yuan rise for the first time this year — just when Obama said he would raise the currency issue.
Recent tit-for-tat trade spats over tyres, chicken parts and steel pipes are not expected to trip up talks, analysts said.
Professor Huang Jing, a China scholar at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said: “Both China and the US know that if this spirals into a trade war, both of them will lose.”
He added: “The Chinese leaders see Obama as a leader not hostile to China, willing to make compromises, but they also understand that he might not be able to (do so) all the time because of domestic pressures.”
Professor Tao Wenzhao, an expert on Sino-US relations from the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Obama took only moderate retaliatory measures.
The agenda for this trip is vast. Obama will likely urge China to step up to the plate as a partner on global problems such as climate change, and the Iran and North Korea nuclear issues.
What Beijing wants most from Washington, say analysts, are its recognition of China as a market economy, and statements on limiting arms sales to Taiwan and on keeping off Tibet.
In bargaining for its agenda, “China will be on the offensive”, noted Huang. “From Beijing's perspective, the situation is in its favour right now.” - Straits Times
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