US President George W. Bush arrives in China
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for a three-day visit during which he was expected to raise thorny
issues such as human rights and democracy with his Chinese hosts.
Bush flew in from South Korea Saturday, where he had attended the
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and held talks with South
Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun.
The US president was due to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart
Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao Sunday before leaving for Mongolia
Monday.
Analysts say the zeal with which Bush seeks to promote democratic
values and human rights across the globe was unlikely to do much to
warm relations with Hu.
On the first stop of his Asian tour in Japan, Bush called on China to
grant its people greater political and religious freedoms and hailed
Taiwan as a model, angering Beijing which considers the island a
breakaway province.
"We encourage China to continue down the road of reform and openness
because the freer China is at home, the greater the welcome it will
receive abroad," he said Wednesday in a keynote speech in Japan.
China's bulging trade surplus, the yuan currency, which Washington says
is undervalued in order to boost exports, and other economic issues
were also set to come up during the Bush visit.
Analysts say the breadth of issues on the agenda, ranging from Taiwan
to bird flu, underscores the ever more complex nature of the
relationship between Beijing and Washington.