As Lawmakers Meet China's Hu, Some Can Only Listen - NYTimes.

com 1/20/11 3:17 PM

JANUARY 20, 2011, 11:50 AM

As Lawmakers Meet China’s Hu, Some Can Only Listen

By HELENE COOPER

2:13 p.m. | Updated There was not much give and take as President Hu Jintao of China met
with House members this morning, according to those who were in attendance. Representative
Kevin Brady, a Republican of Texas, called it “mostly speechifying.”

After a day of being toasted at the White House, Mr. Hu traveled to the chillier end of
Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday to meet with lawmakers waiting to take him to task over
testy issues such as human rights to trade policy.

But the format of the meetings — lawmakers afterwards described a meeting with House
leaders as stilted and formal – didn’t allow for quite as much barbed criticism as some of the
congressional members apparently had hoped.

“We weren’t given a chance,” Rep. Sander Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said afterward.

He and other lawmakers said that Mr. Hu delivered prepared remarks lasting about 20
minutes. The only Representatives who spoke were John Boehner, the House speaker, and
Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader. Mr. Boehner brought up issues involving trade and North
Korea, and Ms. Pelosi brought up human rights issues, including the treatment of Liu Xiaobao,
the Nobel Prize winner.

“I had a really detailed question prepared about the WTO government procurement
agreement,” Rep. Charles Boustany, Republican of Louisiana, said afterwards, referring to the
lengthy process involving China’s accession to the World Trade Organization government
procurement agreement.

Among the other House members who attended were:

Eric Cantor (Republican Leader)

Kevin McCarthy (Republican Whip)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs)
Steny Hoyer (Democratic Whip)
Jim Clyburn (Democratic Assistant Leader)
Howard Berman (Ranking Democrat, Committee on Foreign Affairs)

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As Lawmakers Meet China's Hu, Some Can Only Listen - NYTimes.com 1/20/11 3:17 PM

Mr. Hu also met with Senate leaders, including Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who on
Wednesday called Mr. Hu a “dictator” during an interview. The senators discussed concerns
about China’s currency, which American officials worry remains undervalued, according to one
congressional aide who was in the meeting.

It was never clear how sternly lawmakers might speak to Mr. Hu in private, but in public some
of them have been a bit caustic, while others have been direct without stinging.

Mr. Boehner, in a statement after the House meeting, said: “China is now our second largest
trading partner and will undoubtedly be a critical economic partner in the future. That’s why I
believe it is important that we continue to resolve our differences in ways that benefit both of
our countries and our people.

“In our meeting we addressed some of those challenges, including the need for stronger
intellectual property protections in China and curtailing the aggressive behavior of North
Korea.

“And finally, we raised our strong, ongoing concerns with reports of human rights violations in
China, including the denial of religious freedom, and the use of coercive abortion as a
consequence of the ‘one child’ policy. When it comes to guaranteeing the freedom and dignity
of all her citizens, including and especially the unborn, Chinese leaders have a responsibility to
do better, and the United States has a responsibility to hold them to account.”

On his way into today’s meeting with Senators, John McCain said, referring to the state dinner
at the White House last night: “There’s a certain amount of irony that a Nobel Peace Prize
winner should be hosting a dinner and last year’s Nobel Prize winner is under house arrest.”

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