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Biden China visit has rocky start
Vice President Biden opened his trip to China on Thursday with a speech emphasizing the country's close relationship with the U.S., but his words were overshadowed when Chinese officials tried to usher U.S. press out of the room before Biden was done speaking.
In a White House pool report, Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Memoli wrote that he and other reporters were physically thrown out of a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People and told by officials it was because Biden had gone over the time he had been allotted to speak and no more coverage would be allowed.
“Officials said Biden was going on too long, though he at that point had not spoken for more than 5-6 minutes, including the consecutive translation," the pool report said.
Reporters were also removed from a meeting with National People’s Congress Chairman Wu Bangguo, and press access to a dinner was canceled. The pool report says Biden continued his speech during the shoving match. It is unclear whether he noticed the disturbance.
Officials traveling with the vice president, however, were reportedly unhappy with the actions by Chinese security. Memoli wrote that U.S. officials tried to keep the American reporters in the room.
Biden's trip to China is seen as critical in that it comes shortly after the U.S.'s AAA credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor's. The agency lowered its rating after a messy deal to raise the debt ceiling.
China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, and officials previewing the trip said Biden would be talking to officials about the worthiness of the debt deal.
"I'm absolutely confident that the economic stability of the world rests in no small part on the cooperation of the U.S. and China. ... It is the key, in my view, to global economic stability," Biden said Thursday.
Biden is also expected to pressure China to allow its undervalued currency to rise, something that would boost U.S. exports and take away what the U.S. sees as an unfair price advantage for Chinese exports.
“I would suggest that there’s no more important relationship that we need to establish on the part of the United States than a close relationship with China,” Biden told Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at the welcoming ceremony. He added that he is “absolutely confident that the economic stability of the world rests in no small part on the cooperation between ... the United States and China. It affects every country from your neighbor to the north, to Argentina in the southern tip of South America. It is the key, in my view, to global economic stability.”
Biden later told Wu that the “overwhelming reason I've come [is] to talk about jobs and growth, and as was phrased this morning, the reordering of our economies — yours and ours."
Senior U.S. officials said that behind the scenes the Biden meetings were going very well and China was not worried by the recent debt deal.
"Every single one of the leaders we spoke with today -- both privately and publicly -- the vice president's interaction, were quite confident about the United States," one official told reporters, according to a White House transcript. "I think they were interested in hearing about the dynamics of the discussion, the political debate in the U.S., given the central role the vice president played. But as I said, there was nothing but confidence in the U.S.'s ability to adapt and recover from difficult economic circumstances."
Officials said that Biden raised the exchange rate issue in meetings and that Chinese officials described how their five-year plan will increase imports.
Xi is widely expected to become the next top leader of China after President Hu Jintao steps down next year. Officials described him as being very candid and unscripted in meetings with Biden.
-- This story was updated at 10:36 a.m.
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