Chinese President Xi starts US tour

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in the US on Tuesday to kick off a weeklong visit that is due to include meetings with American business leaders, a black-tie state dinner at the White House hosted by US President Barack Obama, and an address at the United Nations.

Xi began his trip in the US state of Washington, where his itinerary is intended to focus on how US and Chinese experts and businesses could collaborate on nuclear energy, smarter electricity use and other clean technologies. The visit comes a year after Xi and Obama announced that their nations would cooperate to fight climate change.

US government and business leaders said they aimed to strike a balance between forging agreements and improving relations with the world's second-largest economy, while sending strong messages about allegations of Chinese cyber spying, intellectual property violations, Internet censorship and China's disputed territorial claims to islands in the South China Sea.

First stop: Seattle

Xi's plane landed at Paine Field in Everett, near the massive plant outside Seattle where Boeing has been making its largest jets. He was welcomed by an envoy that included Washington Governor Jay Inslee, former Washington governor and US ambassador to China Gary Locke and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray.

The Chinese president is scheduled to tour the Boeing plant and nearby Microsoft, and to meet Warren Buffett, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook as well as Amazon head Jeff Bezos, among 30 or so US and Chinese business leaders at a roundtable discussion. The governors meeting with Xi later in the course of his trip include Jerry Brown of California, Rick Snyder of Michigan, Terry Branstad of Iowa and Kate Brown of Oregon.

In Seattle, supporters turned out to welcome the Chinese president and other dignitaries traveling in his motorcade. Wendy Hu, a native of Guangdong Province, who has lived in Seattle for 20 years, said she wanted to show her support as she loved both countries.

"China and the US are good partners now, with Boeing and Microsoft," Hu told the Associated Press.

Falun Gong protests

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters from the religious group Falun Gong demonstrated outside the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle, holding banners and banging drums as Xi's motorcade passed. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, said its members were being persecuted in China.

"It's about compassion and tolerance," said Sabrina Chang, 28, speaking with AP. She traveled to Seattle with other Falun Gong practitioners for the protest.

Clean and renewable energy

The trip comes at a time when China's economic growth has slowed considerably. The communist nation is overhauling its economy to put more emphasis on consumer spending and less on exports and often-wasteful investment in factories, real estate and infrastructure such as railways and airports, which have shown to be failures.

Brian Young, Washington state director of economic development for the clean technology sector, told AP that there were immense business opportunities for both countries opening up in the future.

"Both sides recognize the opportunity for job creation," he explained.

"These are the largest economies in the world, and we're the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, so improving cooperation and collaboration is really a necessity."

In November 2009, Obama and then-President Hu Jintao formalized a renewable energy partnership, including the establishment of clean-energy research centers focused on electric vehicles, cleaner coal and water energy programs.

Last November, Obama and President Xi announced that the countries would work together on the issue of climate change, with China committing to trying to cap its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, or sooner if possible.

ss/cmk (AP, Reuters)