Demonstators Gather to Protest Bush-Hu Meeting

While President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao hoped their discussions inside the White House would cool tensions over a yawning U.S.-China trade gap, demonstrators massed outside Thursday to protest Beijing's human rights policies.

A single woman on the camera stand interrupted the welcoming ceremony, shouting in English, "President Bush, stop him from persecuting the FalunGong!" She also shouted in Chinese, "President Hu, your days are numbered," according to a translation by reporters on the scene. She was forcibly removed from the South Lawn by uniformed Secret Service personnel.

The talks between Bush and Hu, who was visiting the Washington for the first time as China's leader, were expected to produce little in the way of substance on the trade dispute and no breakthroughs on the major irritant - China's tightly controlled currency.

After two days spent wooing American business leaders in Washington state, Hu arrived Wednesday night in Washington for the half-day summit for what were expected to be frank discussions about America's $202 billion trade deficit with China, the biggest ever recorded with a single country.

That imbalance has spurred calls in Congress to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese products unless China halts trade practices that critics contend are unfair and have contributed to the loss of nearly 3 million U.S. manufacturing jobs since 2001.

The visit attracted high-profile attention both inside and outside the White House gates. The spiritual movement Falun Gong, condemned by the Chinese government as an evil cult, gathered hundreds of demonstrators on street corners near the White House in the early morning. Marchers banged gongs, chanted and waved American and Chinese flags. Banners denounced Hu as a "Chinese dictator" responsible for genocide and other "crimes in Chinese labor camps and prisons."

The Chinese government had its say as well. In a median in front of the Chinese embassy, the Falun Gong protesters that are nearly always there had been replaced by Chinese supporters holding huge red-and-yellow banners offering to "warmly welcome" Hu on his American visit.

There were some obvious signs that the summit was not considered on the U.S. side as a "state visit." Though the Chinese flag flew over Blair House, the official guest quarters for visiting dignitaries across the street from the White House, lamp posts surrounding the compound were bare of the usual pairing of flags from the United States and its guest country.

In addition to trade, Bush was to raise a number of other issues with Hu, including a bid for China's help in dealing with current nuclear standoffs with North Korea and Iran, complaints about China's human rights record and questions over China's growing military strength and whether it poses a threat to Taiwan.

The two sides have even disputed what to call the visit, with the Chinese insisting that it is a "state visit," which was the designation former President Jiang Zemin received in 1997, or an "official visit," the designation the Bush administration is using for Hu's trip.

While Hu was not receiving a black-tie state dinner, he was being greeted by a 21-gun salute on the South Lawn of the White House and a formal lunch for China's first family, with music supplied by a Nashville bluegrass band.

For his part, Hu has carried on a tradition started by Deng Xiaoping on his first visit to the United States in 1979 of courting American business executives in recognition of the fact that the United States is China's biggest overseas market.

Hu had dinner at the home of Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates on Tuesday and on Wednesday he received a warm welcome from employees at Boeing Co.'s massive Everett, Wash., facilities.

Last week, a contingent of more than 200 Chinese trade officials and business executives toured the United States, signing sales contracts for $16.2 billion in American goods, including 80 Boeing jetliners, all in an effort to show that China is trying to bring down the massive trade gap between the two nations.

White House officials said in advance of Thursday's meetings that they did not expect any major announcements on currency or other trade issues, noting that China did make several commitments last week such as requiring that all personal computers sold in China be loaded with legal software and agreeing to drop a ban on imports of U.S. beef.

Some small progress may be made in the area of energy, where China's rapidly growing economy has increased global demand for crude oil, pushing prices higher, and sent China rushing to lock up sources of supply in such questionable areas as Sudan, Burma and Iran.

But without movement on the currency problem, congressional critics are likely to be unimpressed with the results of the meeting.