Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will host Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan, a Chinese folk singing superstar, “at an official state dinner on the evening of September 25”, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
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The White House is supposedly keen to avoid any potential disagreements before a landmark visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi Jinping is reciprocating Obama’s State Visit to China in November 2014.
But the biggest point of contention may be in the military sphere, were China has made a series of claims to disputed territories in the South and East China Sea.
Xi will also visit the UN headquarters in New York to attend summits commemorating the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations from September 26 to 28.
During past high-level meetings, Obama administration officials have been reluctant to publicly criticize Chinese leaders on human rights issues, presumably out of fear this could jeopardize important areas of cooperation.
“We are preparing a number of measures that will indicate to the Chinese that this is not just a matter of us being mildly upset”, he said during a speech to the Business Roundtable in Washington. However, with a rather eventful year in US-China relations so far in 2015, there are a whole new range of discussions to be held between these two best buddies.
Obama is expected to also relay his concerns over the aggressive expansion of China in the Pacific.
USA officials have pointed to China as the source of a hack into government personnel records that exposed personal data of millions of current and former federal employees, possibly for intelligence purposes.
“A high-standard BIT – with clear provisions providing equal treatment to each country’s investors and a short list of exceptions – is one of the key items that could make an immediate and tangible impact for both of our economies”, they said. China crushes its soybean imports into soyoil for food processing and soymeal for livestock feeds.
Although the deals are seen as political gestures, they could boost the US soy market 0#S: , where the front-month contract traded at 6-1/2-year lows last week.
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Beijing was alarmed in June when the DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the party’s presidential candidate, visited Washington to rally support from U.S. officials and politicians.
