-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/3181177.htm
}}}>Begin Posted on Thu, May. 02, 2002 Future Chinese president tours D.C. VISIT INCLUDES RARE CONTACT WITH BUSH AND TOP U.S. OFFICIALS By Peter Slevin and John Pomfret Washington Post WASHINGTON - Hu Jintao, the enigmatic heir apparent to China's presidency, made his first tour of Washington's power corridors Wednesday, trading opinions with President Bush and other top administration officials on Taiwan, trade, terrorism and U.S. complaints about human rights. Bush told the Chinese vice president that he is pleased with the state of U.S.-China relations, even as he urged that China respect religious freedom, a senior White House official said. Hu raised concerns about recent administration steps to help Taiwan, which China regards as a wayward province and political competitor. At the Pentagon, where Hu became the highest-ranked Chinese official ever to visit, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld agreed with Hu to designate deputies to discuss resuming military contacts, which were suspended last year after the midair collision of a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. military reconnaissance plane. U.S. officials viewed Hu's visit as a largely scripted get-acquainted session with the Chinese leader expected to become the next president of the world's largest country. A State Department official said simply, ``This is an opportunity for us to get some sense of each other.'' Bush emphasized ways the two countries can work together and reiterated the United States' longstanding ``one China'' policy. But he also raised complaints of religious persecution, calling on the Chinese to be ``sensitive to the concerns of the Catholic Church and the Dalai Lama,'' a senior official said. Hu replied that ``religious freedom is welcomed in China and is China's policy,'' the official said. Hu's swing through Washington resembled a state visit, boasting the motorcades and the high-level access -- everything but the fancy White House dinner. He settled for an 80- minute working dinner with Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday night and lunch Wednesday at Vice President Dick Cheney's house with a handful of Cabinet secretaries, then spoke at a dinner for 600 Tuesday night at the Capitol Hilton. Doors opened to Hu at a pace highly unusual for any nation's second-ranking leader. In 24 hours, he saw the president, vice president and the secretaries of state, defense, treasury, commerce and labor, as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the president of the World Bank. The leaders discussed a broad range of issues on the Sino-American agenda, including trade and weapons proliferation. Hu, a hydrologist picked by China's late leader Deng Xiaoping to become China's next chief, is an unknown in China and the United States. He is expected to become the Communist Party general secretary at the 16th Party Congress in the fall, and then succeed Jiang Zemin as president in the spring. Hu's public appearances at home and abroad are carefully programmed. The U.S. trip, which included stops in Honolulu, San Francisco and New York, fit the pattern. His Chinese handlers, fearing that a misstep could open him up to allegations at home of being too pro- American, have wrapped him in a cocoon and rejected State Department offers to allow Hu more contact with Americans. © 2001 mercurynews and wire service sources. 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