U.S. China Relations and the Upcoming Visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao

MR. BAILY: Good afternoon and welcome to the Foreign Press Center for this afternoon's background briefing. Before we get started I just wanted to also note that tomorrow, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez will be briefing here on the record on the China-U.S. relationship, the economic aspect of that. This afternoon's briefing is on background: two senior U.S. officials. We will start off with two short statements and then be happy to take your questions.

Thank you.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. As you know, this visit of Hu Jintao is his first since he assumed all three top posts in the Chinese Government. He's President, Chairman of the Central Military Commission and Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party. Originally, this visit had been scheduled for last September, September 7th to be exact, but that visit had to be postponed because of Hurricane Katrina. Of course, as you know, President and Mrs. Bush went to Beijing last November and they're now delighted to be able to welcome President Hu and his wife to the White House on April 20th.

I won't go in detail into the schedule of events but let me just give you a few pointers on this. First of all, President Hu will receive full military honors on the South Lawn of the White House. He'll be accorded a 21-gun salute as befits a head of state and he will review a military honor guard. Both the President and President Hu will make short statements on the White House lawn.

After the arrival, the Presidents and their key national security advisors will move into the Oval Office to discuss global and bilateral security issues. Then there will be a larger meeting in the Cabinet room which will focus primarily on economic issues. The President and his wife will then host a large social lunch for the Hus. We also understand that President Hu will have a busy afternoon schedule at Blair House where he will be staying as a guest of the United States Government. This will include a meeting with the Vice President and meetings with members of Congress.

As to the substance of the visit, as you know these two men know each other well by now and they can engage, therefore, in in-depth pragmatic discussion of real issues of concern. The President set a new record for presidential interaction last year. They met five times. And looking at the calendar for this year, they will meet at least four times over the course of the year.

We see getting U.S.-China relations right as one of the key challenges of the 21st century. China in the past year has become our third largest trading partner and we welcome the rise of a China that is a responsible stakeholder in the international system. The President has referred to this as a complex relationship and, indeed, there are many opportunities but also challenges that will be part of the dialogue with President Hu. Chinese economy is still approximately 40 percent state-owned -- controlled by state-owned corporations and one of China's largest challenges is to continue to move from a half reformed economy to a fully marketized system by opening China's markets to U.S. goods and services, respecting intellectual property rights and by moving toward a flexible market-based currency.

China's economic expansion has been remarkable over the last two decades and the economic freedoms China's population now enjoys are substantial. But, unfortunately, political freedom has lagged in China and the President will continue to make the point to President Hu that they cannot let their population increasingly experience the freedom to buy, sell and produce while denying them the right to assemble, speak and worship as they choose.

In the short span of a quarter century, China has gone from being a rather self-absorbed nation to one that now understands that it has international responsibility. China has joined us in the struggle against terrorism, proliferation, combating avian flu and other epidemic diseases and has joined a clean development initiative, among other things.

President Bush will talk to President Hu about China's responsibilities as a Perm 5 member and particularly on the issue of the Iranian Government and the need for that Government to assume a more responsible regional policy and a more responsible policy on its nuclear ambitions. The President will also talk to President Hu about the North Korean situation and urge President Hu to help in the process of getting the North Koreans to return to the six-party talks ready to implement the September 19th, 2005, joint statement on Korean denuclearization so that the people of the Korean Peninsula have a future that is free of nuclear weapons.

President Bush will also engage the Chinese leader on other key international issues, such as China's nontransparent military buildup, the continuing military expansion opposite Taiwan and their support for resource rich countries with poor records on democracy and human rights.

I hope you can see from this brief overview that there's a great deal on the plate whenever these two leaders meet. This will be a visit with a rich agenda and a frank and constructive dialogue. There is no auto pilot in U.S.-China relations, but relations have matured to a point where neither is this meeting terribly unusual.

Finally, as we noted in the national security strategy which we released in March, the President will encourage President Hu to continue to press ahead down the road of reform and openness and pursue a policy of peaceful development. The President believes this is the only way to meet the legitimate aspirations of the Chinese people while creating regional and international security.

Let me turn the podium over to my colleague to discuss some of the economic issues.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO: Thank you. We're at an important time in the bilateral economic relationship, at a time when the relationship is under an enormous amount of scrutiny. This has been a factor in our relationship over the course of this entire Administration, but it's also probably something that's at an even higher level in the context of this visit.

As an Administration, we believe that the economic relationship between the United States and China is mutually beneficial but that much more needs to be done to make those benefits more balanced for both sides and both countries. China is our third largest trading partner. It's our fastest growing export market, but it also has the largest bilateral trade surplus with the United States. In fact, the largest bilateral trade surplus that any country has with another is the one that China has with us. And now China is now increasingly developing an enormous and rapidly growing global trade surplus.

We have worked hard over the course of this Administration to address the problems that have arisen in the bilateral economic relationship. We have done this by urging China to further open this market, by encouraging structural reforms to level the playing field in our trading relationship with China and also we’ve pressed China to live up to its commitments that have been made both in the context of the WTO in other contexts. He took an important step forward in that regard at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade last week, co-chaired by the secretaries of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative on our side and Vice Premier Wu on the Chinese side. We were able to get a number of important commitments from China, including three in particular they all know.

One was to -- a commitment on the part of the Chinese to reopen their market to U.S. -- exports of U.S. beef. A second is to -- a requirement that the Chinese have now committed themselves to require all computer sales to include preloaded legitimate software which will be an important step forward in the protection of intellectual property rights. And finally, the Chinese agreed to an important step forward to begin to participate in negotiations to eventually join the WTO's government procurement agreement, which will help open the Chinese Government procurement market to -- more fully to American companies looking to sell to the Chinese Government.

President Bush will use the meeting with President Hu to do a number of things on the economic side. He will commend the Chinese and President Hu on the progress that was made at the JCCT. He will urge further action to open the Chinese market and to level the playing field. He will also highlight specific areas of concern, including our concern with a continued lack of movement in the Chinese currency.

One particular area of focus for our President will be to discuss with President Hu the recent announcement the China Central Bank Governor made regarding a five-point plan to balance their global surplus over the next three years. This plan was announced by Chinese Bank Governor Zhou in a speech on March 20th and was publicized in the Chinese media later that month. And elements of it are outlined in the five-year program that the National People's Congress adopted last month.

The plan, as announced, lays out five objectives to achieve global -- balance trade over three years. These are, first, to increase domestic demand and to move China away from -- move China towards becoming a consumption away from a export-led economy towards a more consumption based economy. Second, to reform their pension system by reducing precautionary savings. Third, to increase exchange rate flexibility. Four, to open market access and fifth to increase imports. We view this plan to be very important because it reflects a concrete plan of action with a clear timeframe to deal with the problem that China needs to address, both for the health of its own economy as well as to bring more balance in its trading relationship with other countries. Thank you.

MR. BAILY: And with that, we'll be happy to take your questions. Yes, ma'am in the front row. If you'd state your name and organization. Thank you.

QUESTION: My name is Nadia Tsao, Washington correspondent for Liberty Times. I have a question for the senior officials. Before President Hu's meeting in Washington, he had a forum with Taiwanese opposition Party leaders in Beijing. Do you think this conversation will help to stabilize the situation or bring a new factor to the U.S.-China relationship? Does the U.S. welcome this kind of dialogue? Thank you.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: Well, it's very clear, the U.S. welcomes dialogue between the authorities in Beijing and the authorities -- all authorities in Tapei. And as we've frequently said to the authorities in Beijing and we'll say it again, it's important that the central government in Beijing engage directly with the elected government in Tapei and that is with the DPP. We have seen over the course of a year or more quite a bit of interaction between the government in Beijing and opposition parties. But our position with the Chinese Government has been that dialogue is good, but dialogue with the elected government in Tapei is essential.

QUESTION: Hasan Hazar, Turkiye Daily. What are U.S. expectations from China on Iran issue, and democratization and human rights especially in the Sujiatun district?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: On Iran, we have a very intense diplomatic process with the Chinese to work with them, to try and obviously get the Iranian Government to see that their actions are not responsible actions at this point. A senior Chinese official is in Tehran right now and he is going on to Moscow and he will be meeting with representatives of several countries, including Nick Burns from our State Department.

The hope is that as we go through this month of April, we can begin to develop the way ahead and nobody knows exactly what that should be. That is a subject for discussion and dialogue as to exactly how we will move ahead in making a strong statement to the Iranians that they must take a more responsible position than they've taken to date.

On the issue of freedom and human rights, whether it's in Xinjiang or Guangzhou or Guangdong Province, from our point of view, it's the same issue. It doesn't matter what part of China it is in. Our position and the President's position, which he has outlined every time he has met with President Hu -- I was with him in Beijing in November and I can tell you he did that with President Hu then -- is that China will be a stronger nation when it realizes that freedom of assembly, freedom of worship, freedom of speech are parts of modern society.

If you look at the President's speech in Kyoto, he talked about the fact that there are many good models in East Asia of this. But this is not an American imposition on East Asia, that the model in East Asia has become one of free and democratic societies. If you look at everywhere from Japan, Korea, India, Taiwan, Indonesia, this region is moving in a democratic and free direction that has created economic growth. It has created stable societies and we think Beijing should be looking at the model that is out there and, therefore, that's what he'll talk to the Chinese about. It's not an American model of democracy; it's an Asian model of democracy and freedom that we're talking about here.

QUESTION: Christoph Von Marshall from Der Tagesspiegel from Berlin. You gave us an overview over several problems -- several fields. But if I would ask you to name the top two priorities, is it then rather trade and exchange rate and Iran, P-5, or is it rather the freedom agenda? Just give me the idea what is the two top priorities.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: You know, this is why we call it a complex relationship (laughter) because coming down to two is very hard. I can tell you that when we write the briefing memo for the President, the one for the China visit is always the longest one, because we can never seem to boil it down to one or two issues. I mean, I think it's fair as you said to say that Iran is very high on the agenda right now. It has to be because we consider it so important to continue to move forward with our allies and friends and keep the pressure on Tehran. But I think it's very difficult for any of us to say what the absolute two priorities are.

QUESTION: So how high is the currency in the trade issue? Recently in the Wall Street Journal you have the impression that it's expanded -- (inaudible) it's three and four, so not very high but (inaudible).

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: I might just make an introduction for my colleague by noting that -- I mean, this is part of our dialogue with the Chinese across the board, whether it's at the level of the President, at the Cabinet level, as has just happened with both USTR and Commerce as well as the Department of Agriculture kicking in or through the State Department and the Departments of Defense on security issues.

One of the -- part of the background of the Deputy Secretary's phrase, "responsible stakeholder in the international system" is that the Chinese need to step up to these responsibilities across the board because they're getting benefits across the board and our sense is that, you know, one can measure in different areas progress or lack thereof, and it's very difficult to separate the domestic support that's necessary to sustain our policies on both sides from the international issues. So what you're asking us to do is disaggregate something that's really an integrated whole.

QUESTION: Alexander Plakhov, Itar Tass news agency. Will the Presidents be discussing any new initiatives on how to overcome the current stalemate in the six-party talks?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: As far as we're concerned, the September document is an excellent document. Five of six parties in the six-party talks have all agreed that this is the way they should move forward. And I would encourage you to study that document because it's not just about denuclearization. It has many aspects to it and it discusses many elements of how we move forward in northeast Asia with building a new environment.

The difficulty we have, frankly, is that the North Koreans have refused to come back to the table and they make various excuses for why that hasn't occurred. Their current excuse is that we have taken action against this Banco Delta Asia in Hong Kong -- I mean, in Macau, excuse me. Frankly, we don't find that very credible. We find that to be not a reason to come back to the table because we've said that we can discuss all of these issues at the table at the six-party talks. So at this point, we will not, I would doubt, be discussing any kind of new proposals during President Hu's visit, but rather talking to him about how do we get the North Koreans to see that it is in their strategic interest to move ahead with the September 19th statement.

In many ways, North Korea needs to make the same decision China made in the early 1970s and that is that you open the outside world and good things happen. Right now, the North Koreans don't seem to believe that, but we hope the Chinese can in some way help to convince the North that that's really the only viable way forward. Because right now, frankly, the North Korean economy is pretty flat on its back, the people are suffering. It's time for North Korea to make the strategic decision that will be best for its people.

QUESTION: Charlie Snyder of the Taipei Times. You mentioned that the President would bring up China's missile buildup across the Straits of Taiwan. Does the fact that the President plans to bring this up and the fact that you highlighted it as one of the areas indicate that you expect the President to seek China's action in either suspending buildup or reducing their buildup and perhaps that this might be part of some sort of broader effort to convince China to take a less threatening stance towards Taiwan?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: First of all, let me be clear, I talked about a military buildup not just a missile buildup, because I think sometimes we focus on just one element of a rather larger picture of military activity across the Strait. This is an issue that has to be of concern to us, because while the Chinese Government proclaims that its desire is for a peaceful settlement of this situation, there is no doubt that since 1995 there has been a large increase in military capabilities opposite Taiwan. This is of concern to us and we're not going to shy away from either talking about it or writing about it, as you have seen in the Department of Defense Military Power Report. And there will be a new Military Power Report coming out this year, of course, and it will document again the increase in military capabilities opposite Taiwan at a time when, as we all know, Taiwan's military spending has been rather flat.

So at the same time that Taiwan is not spending more on defense, we find that Beijing is continuing to raise defense spending at double-digit rates. So this is an issue that we have to raise with the Chinese President; that he needs to know that it is of concern to us. They often come at us asking us to end our military assistance to Taiwan. There is no possible way we can end our military assistance to Taiwan under these circumstances. We have the Taiwan Relations Act. We adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act. We will help Taiwan defend itself. That is part of our policy and we annunciate that to the Chinese.

So I'm not sure that we've got any breakthrough coming during this visit, but we don't shy away from the issue.

MR. BAILY: Next question. Yes, sir. Right here, second row here.

QUESTION: Wei Jing from Global Times of Beijing. The question is ---- this you see is so legitimate. Do you have any reaction to Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian's desire to cancel the Unification Council or any behavior on the other side of the Strait. Is that rewarded by your assurance? And you don't give Beijing's side any legitimacy in defending its territory. Thank you.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: It seems to me we ought to really focus on the President's visit which is what this background briefing is about. Clearly, the set of current events is always part of the dialogue and especially most recent events, including meeting with the opposition and our desire to see Beijing and the elected representatives in Taipei come together in cross-Strait dialogue. So a wide range of issues are capable of being raised by either side. We can't predict precisely which words either President will use. Of course, they'll make their own decisions as they're want to do.

But it's quite clear that we have a very clear and well-established framework for our "One China" policy. It's not changing, it hasn't changed and we're not going to change it.

QUESTION: Satoshi Ukai from Asahi Shimbun. Just going back to economic issues a little bit, we know the Chinese economy has expanded quite rapidly, the latest report. Do you think this will help the relationship between the two countries?

And two, the Chinese currency hasn't gone up much recently. Do you think the President will ask the Chinese counterpart to perhaps issue a statement on that front?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO: Good questions. On the issue of China's growth, we obviously, of course, welcome China's growth but as the economy matures there are a number of important decisions that we feel the Chinese economic policymakers have to think hard about in terms of preparing the structures of their economic system to deal with the realities of an increasingly mature system like they have. And that's why we particularly welcome the five-point plan that I alluded to at the beginning of my remarks. I think this reflects -- in our view, it seems that it reflects a real understanding on the part of the Chinese leadership that there are real reforms that their system has to undergo to begin the transformation from being an export-led economy to being a more consumption-based economy as befits a country at its level of economic development.

And that's why the five elements that I went through and enumerated are so important, I think in terms of China taking the steps that's necessary to take to address the structural needs of its own economy system, but also to bring more balance in its economic relationship with its trading partners. Exchange rates being one element but only one of a number of elements that they need to undertake to make the change that we feel they need to make.

In terms of the exchange rate and statements, I would refer you to the statement that the Chinese central bank issued on July 21st of last year when they initially moved off the strict peg to the U.S. dollar. The policy that was outlined by the government on July 21st was actually a very good one. We welcomed the announcement. We commended the way the Chinese Government had articulated its desires and its goals with respect to introducing more flexibility to its exchange rate system over time. The challenge has been and the problem has been that since that time the degree of movement has been very, very small. And so we have urged the Chinese to make good on -- understanding that there's a transition period -- but to make good on the goals and the objectives that they had laid out in their July 21st statement.

And so I expect that the two leaders will discuss that issue. And in terms of any public statements, we're not expecting any new public statements in large part because the key statement was the one made on July 21st and it's a matter of implementing it at this point.

MR. BAILY: Yes.

QUESTION: My name is Vincent Chen of United Daily News. The government in Taiwan still hasn't responded to a State Department statement on March 2nd which requires the Taiwanese authorities to publicly recognize the existence of the National Unification Council. I wonder what President Bush -- will President Bush address this issue once the Chinese President raise this question?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: As I answered earlier, and I think you'll get this answer from me several more times if you ask the question several more times, we have a "One China" policy, as we define it, and I could annunciate that for you here if you like, but you all know it as well as I do. And the President will reiterate our policy. That's really part of looking forward in the relationship and looking forward. Again, we'll very much look forward to the notion of cross-Strait dialogue and cross-Strait dialogue the central authorities in Beijing and the elected representatives in Taipei.

QUESTION: Can I just follow-up?

MR. BAILY: One last one. How many more do we have on that one?

QUESTION: I just want -- yeah, you answered that just now. I just want to get it right. So this means that the President is just going to reiterate -- reconfirm the position of U.S. We're not going to get anything new besides, you know, we have already heard before as regarding the Taiwan issue.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: Having worked in the White House before, I know better than to tell you that the President's not or never going to do something. What I can tell you is that we have no intention of changing our "One China" policy, as we define it. It's sad. It hasn't changed. It won't change. And we want to look forward in the relationship and find ways to encourage the authorities in Beijing to establish a dialogue, direct dialogue across the strait with the elected representatives in Taiwan.

QUESTION: What does "One China" include?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: You know what, perhaps we could go off line at the end, if you like and I'll reiterate for you our "One China" policy. I think you've all heard it before, but I'd be happy to do it again.

MR. BAILY: Yes, sir. In the back.

QUESTION: Gregory Ho from Radio Free Asia. A quick follow-up on the democratic democracy, a question. Would President Bush raise any specific case to Chinese President Hu, Zhao Yan’s case or Yang Jianli’s case or Shi Tao's case, will be raised -- Question one? Question two is we realize that there are -- there seems to be no formal joint press conference this time in the White House. Is it -- looks like quite rare for -- in town here or does the American side raise the question to hold a joint press conference to the China side, but denied it by the China side? Or -- yeah, I just want to know why there are no joint press conference. Thank you.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: On the question of raising specific persons of concern to the United States, the President has done this in every meeting that he has held with President Hu. He always raises the issue of human rights in China. And in New York last September, we provided them a specific list of people of particular concern to us. We will continue to do that.

But I think it's important that we -- while we do want to get individuals out of China who are in danger, our more pressing concern is to see systemic changes in Chinese society, that it's easy to look at a particularly hard case and be very concerned about an individual, but our concern is to help hundreds of millions of Chinese experience true freedom. And so while we continue to press on the individual cases, we press even harder on the idea that we need to find ways to have more democratic reform in China, more freedom of expression for the Chinese people and that includes, obviously, the internet which has become a large issue recently in China.

As to the modalities of press availability, you will not be surprised that the Chinese likes a more limited press availability than is our custom. But you know, we respect our guests and therefore, this is the mode that we will use during this visit.

QUESTION: So is it true, it was denied by the Chinese side to host the joint press conference this time?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: Well, there will be a press availability at the bottom of the meeting between the presidents in the Oval office. So it's not fair to say there is no press availability. There is a press availability.

MR. BAILY: Let's go to the third row here.

QUESTION: Jorge Liu, Central News Agency, Taiwan. To me, it's very strange that a visit is interpreted differently by the host and by the guest, I mean, a visit interpreted by Beijing as a state visit, but by D.C. as only a visit. And my question is who is right? (Laughter.)

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: Yeah. That's right. You know, this is a question of custom. And it won't surprise you that there are Chinese customs and there are American customs. The Chinese custom, as I have learned over time is that whenever the President of China travels as head of state to another country, by definition, the Chinese Government says that is a state visit. We respect that. From our point of view and our custom, there are certain criteria for visits and each is unique. Each visit that we have is different. In this case, we're having a social lunch at the White House and we are simply calling this one a visit. So we have different customs. It hasn't -- honestly, it hasn't been an issue between us.

MR. BAILY: Third row.

QUESTION: Yes. Dong Min Lee, Yonhap News Agency, South Korea. Were the issues raised about China's repatriation of North Koreans refugees over its border and if so, where will it be raised at some level or lower?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: As you know, we took the step of issuing a statement recently on the return of an individual, a woman from China to North Korea. And we felt that China had not lived up to its commitments under the UN Conventions in taking this action. Our diplomats had spoken to the Chinese about this case before the repatriation and we were disappointed to see that there weren't more opportunities to find another to deal with this situation.

The President feels very strongly about the plight of the North Korean people. He discusses it often with us. He is concerned about the North Korean people and he wants to try and help in every way possible. So I'm sure that the subject will come up in way or another during the visit.

QUESTION: Conrad Chaffee of Asahi Shimbun, Japanese newspaper. The President said the other day that he wants to see the good Sino-Japan relationship and he's been working on -- to encourage both sides to have the good relationship. And is this something that's going to be brought up in the summit and, if it will, in what way?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: Well, I'm not sure I can tell you precisely how it will come up, but clearly this is in America's interest. We are looking to the future of our engagement with Asia. In order to maximize the potential of that engagement we need for Asians, in particular this Sino-Japanese set of frictions or irritations to be resolved over time, and we recognize these are serious problems with longstanding history and are the kinds of problems that Asians themselves have to work on. This is not something that Americans can solve for Asia, but we do have an interest in seeing these issues forthrightly addressed and resolved over time on terms acceptable to all the parties involved.

We, I think, can be quite confident that this issue will come up because the President, I think, has shown over time, along with the Secretary of State, a real interest in seeing the two sides sit down and find a way to work through -- seriously through these issues.

QUESTION: Hi. Brian Knowlton here, International Herald Tribune. I'm wondering if someone can elaborate a bit on what you expect from the discussion on avian flu and are there any specific concerns the U.S. has about whether China is taking fully adequate steps on that?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: Well, this is an issue that the two Presidents have been discussing for some time. As you might know, President Bush has let President Hu know that this is an issue that he, President Bush, is personally following and directing for our government. The Chinese have recognized that and have put a lot of effort, I think, into the discussion and dialogue with us and also their multilateral dialogue on this subject. I think we've seen some very positive movement in the direction of greater transparency and more engagement between not only Chinese health authorities and international health practitioners but also on the political side we've seen more engagement.

I think we would like to see a closer and more cooperative relationship continue to develop between the health authorities in China and the World Health Organization and also bilaterally with our Centers for Disease Control. I think we're satisfied that things are moving in the right direction, but this is a genuine threat, a serious threat for all of us on a global basis and we need to do more to ensure that we're latched together as closely as we possibly can be.

MR. BAILY: Go to the second row here, Joyce.

QUESTION: Yes. Joyce Karam with Al Hayat newspaper. My question is on Iran. What are the U.S. concerns on the Chinese position when it comes to the Iranian nuclear issue? Is it increasing trade between Tehran and Beijing or is it China not supporting sanctions or other U.S. policy tools at the UN? Do you see a breakthrough on that issue after the meeting?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: The Chinese positionhas been helpful. We have seen the Chinese engage with the Iranians as they are today. And they -- certainly, when the Iranian Government, for example, made some rather irresponsible statements about Israel, the Chinese Government condemned those statements, so we are working closely with them. As to what the next steps are, as to what China's position will be on future steps, that's part of diplomacy, that's what we are engaged in right now. That's what Nick Burns will be discussing in Moscow on the 19th with the Chinese and others. So I can't tell you where the Chinese are. I can't tell you if we're going to have a breakthrough because I don't know yet. I think all the parties concerned are trying to feel their way to what is the best means, the best way to move the Iranian Government in a positive direction.

So I'm not going to prejudge where China's going to come out on this issue. But we've seen them definitely engaged, definitely concerned and, as I say, to date, helpful on this issue.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: I might just add, I would just encourage you not to take as the premise of your question. This is an issue for the U.S. and the Chinese, or even just the Perm 5. I mean, this is international diplomacy at large, whether it's the IAEA or the entire Security Council. This is a matter for international diplomacy not just a bilateral one.

MR. BAILY: Go to Germany here.

QUESTION: Adrienne Woltersdorf from the German national daily, Die Tagespiele. Because you have so many issues, I would like to know how long exactly are the two men going to talk to each other? (Laughter.) How many minutes?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: It sounds like forever, doesn't it?

QUESTION: And the second question is, could you be a little bit more specific about -- you mentioned Mr. Bush is going to remind China to live up the WTO convention.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: Sure. I think one thing to understand, and it's important and my colleague mentioned it in connection with the JCCT meetings, we've done a lot of work beforehand for the visit of President Hu. We've had very detailed economic discussions both here and in Beijing. Cabinet secretaries have been involved in those, Secretary Snow, Secretary Gutierrez, Ambassador Portman, Johanns. I mean, the broad range of economic agencies have worked hard to create these new agreements that we have with China on the economic side.

So in some ways, when the Presidents meet they don’t have to go into all of the nitty-gritty details. Their staff officers, quite appropriately, have done the ground work and they will talk about implementation. They'll talk about the next steps. They'll talk about how we move ahead now that we've come to these kinds of agreements and similarly on other subjects. We have this very good dialogue, which we call the senior dialogue, that Bob Zoellick at the State Department is running with the Chinese. His counterpart is Dai Bingguo. And in that dialogue they are getting into the nitty-gritty; that's why we created that. I think their last meeting was three days in length. You know, a tremendously long set of sessions about global issues of all kinds.

So we are working the issues at a lot of different levels and then the Presidents really cap that activity. So they don't need to meet as long as some of these other meetings in order to make this work. But they'll have a fairly extensive amount of time together. They'll be together all morning until about two o'clock in the afternoon, so there will be plenty of time for discussion.

Do you want to answer the WTO?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO: Did you have a specific question on the WTO or just in broad terms?

QUESTION: The intellectual property.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO: The intellectual property issue is an enormous priority for us. It's an area that we focused on in -- broadly in our trade relationship with most countries, but with China in particular because the scale of IPR violation and piracy that occurs in China, both in terms of their domestic market but also in terms of products that are produced in China and sold in foreign markets is enormous. So it's a major, major priority of ours. It's been an issue the President has raised in his discussions with President Hu in the past and it's been something that has been very much of a focus of the JCCT meetings we've had before.

And so the progress that we were able to make on intellectual property issues at the JCCT meeting last week was important. But obviously it's an area that requires sustained and consistent attention on the part of the Chinese Government at all levels, including all the way to the very top in their system to get the kind of results that we're expecting from them. And our approach on that issue is to continue to press and continue to raise the issues of priority until we begin to see real progress in slowing down, abating and then ultimately reversing the scale of the IPR piracy problem in China.

MR. BAILY: We have time for one more question.

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: I want to just very briefly add one further point, if I could. This is also, as we see it, a real opportunity for President Wu and the Chinese delegation to speak to the American people, whether it's on the South Lawn or on other occasions. This is a chance to explain where China is and speak to the American people about where China wants to go. So we certainly see many opportunities here for the Chinese delegation to interact with all of us, the government but the people as well and including, of course, in the run-up to the visit when Vice Premier Wu visited a number of American cities before coming to Washington for the ministerial.

So we hope the Chinese will take full advantage of this opportunity to speak to the American people as well.

MR. BAILY: One last question.

QUESTION: Yes. My name is Ben Bangoura with Afrotrading.com in Washington. In recent months, Chinese Government laid down a very robust agenda which would boost trade and investment between China and Africa to the point that some analysts fear that China may be a threat to the U.S. interest on the Continent. What's your view on that?

SENIOR U.S. OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: I think it's quite clear that we have many shared interests on the Continent and need to cooperate and coordinate in many different ways. The Chinese have long had an extensive assistance program in Africa and this is something that it ought to coordinate, not only with Americans but with other international donors and actors in that scene.

As part of the run-up to this senior dialogue that we've discussed between Deputy Secretary Zoellick and his Minister of Foreign Affairs counterpart, we've had exchanges with the Chinese at the assistant secretary level on a number of different geographic areas, including Africa and talked a little bit about what we might do in order to ensure that there is more convergence between our approaches and examine and talk about any divergence. And in particular, we would hope that we'd be pointing toward strengthening civil society and public governance, strengthening the opportunity for the countries on the Continent to deal with the many public health and other threats that they have and not diverting resources away toward military spending and that sort of thing.

So we have quite a robust dialogue going on with the Chinese looking for this sort of greater coordination.