Hu-Obama

Chinese president is visiting the Unite States. I am curious about how different media portrays this historic visit.

New York Times focuses on "Chinese leader's limits", saying that Hu might be "the weakest leader" of the Communist era. The article said that Chinese authority is less concentrated than 20 years ago, and therefore it is harder for the President to deal with economic, military, etc. Other clusters of power include the military, central bankers, head of state-owned companies, according to NYT.

The Washington Post quoted Chinese President Hu as saying that U.S. and China must work toward mutual trust. "The two countries could mutually benefit by finding "common ground" on issues from fighting terrorism and nuclear proliferation to cooperating on clean energy and infrastructure development."

Wall Street Journal also quoted Hu on the importance on US-China cooperation. WSJ also highlighted Hu's question to Dollar and the flawed international monetary system. Other discussion is mostly focused on economic issues like exchange rate.

Reuters also focuses mainly on the monetary issues and trade imbalances. It is quoted by many US media that Hu said, “the dollar-based international currency system is a "product of the past”.

MSNBC used the big headline of “distrust lingers on both sides” while interpreting Hillary Clinton’s talk, which is contrary to the main point that Clinton was trying to make. I wonder how the journalist could ever get it so wrong.

The Chinese media is overwhelmingly warm and positive about the future relationship between China and U.S. Cooperation, mutual interests, win-win, abandon the Cold War Mentality are the key words. China and the United States have no other alternative but cooperation. In contrast, the US media sounds very pessimistic and suspicious.