FILE: Chinese President Xi Jinping (Reuters photo)
Chinese President Xi Jinping does not usually conduct open news conferences, but when in America, do as the Americans do. He and President Obama will probably take only two questions each, but here are six questions that reporters might ask, given the chance.
1. Do you think China needs a strong leader in the Mao model?
Like other urban Chinese who came of age during the Cultural Revolution, you spent time in the poor countryside and were sufficiently self-motivated to independently study and gain admission to university afterward. And during that time, the country was turned upside down by internal battles within the Chinese Communist Party. Your father was purged even before the Cultural Revolution.
Now many people say you are burnishing your own image to be more like Chairman Mao Zedong than other more recent Chinese leaders. What political lessons do you draw from the Cultural Revolution, and how does that affect the way you deal with corruption, rivals in the party and your own images such as the ones of you in an updated Mao outfit riding in the recent military parade?
2. How can you expect the Chinese people to respect the rule of law when the government fails to do so?
China claims to be governed by the rule of law, and in your anti-corruption campaign, you have tried to impose the rule of law. Yet over the summer, the government detained or questioned at least 277 lawyers and rights activists. Dozens remain in custody without charge. Just one month ago, the government detained a lawyer in Wenzhou in the middle of the night; his firm protested that he "handled cases in complete compliance with procedures." Dissidents, including jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, languish in prison while others, including Liu's wife, are subject to house arrest without ever being charged with an offense. How do you explain that?
3. Will you shelve the draft law on nongovernmental organizations?
The Chinese government has issued a proposed law imposing tough requirements on non-governmental organizations in China, including foreign NGOs. The law would require NGOs to register, file detailed accounting of funding sources and comply with vague standards of political compliance - such as promoting "the development of Chinese public welfare."
The new rule could cripple the NGO sector, including environmental groups, educational institutions, the Ford Foundation, medical institutions with joint research projects. In the worst case, it could apply to university singing group tours or events to network with Chinese alumni of American universities. U.S. nongovernmental organizations have helped train a generation of Chinese leaders, made buildings more energy-efficient, and saved lives through more effective medical procedures.
Some universities are also worried about extraterritorial effects of the draft law, such as holding China-based individuals accountable for events - such as a talk by a Chinese dissident - that might take place in the United States.
A group of leading U.S. universities has submitted a letter warning that they would consider closing their Chinese campuses. Even the Tsinghua University law school has proposed revisions. The government may have had China's own civil society and specific NGOs in mind when it drafted the law, but do you believe civil society has little role to play in China's development? Aren't these rules likely to cause more harm to Chinese society than benefit?
4. What can the Obama administration expect you to do, and when, to crack down on perpetrators of cybercrime, state and non-state sponsored?
Given that trade between the United States and China tops $600 billion annually, business should be a bedrock of support for U.S.-China relations. Yet American business leaders have been irked by a wave of thefts of intellectual property that damages their ability to do business there. Moreover, China's demands that technology companies turn over proprietary source codes and its failure to open up certain industries to foreign business as planned have turned American business people into some of China's sharpest critics - no matter what the overly polite tech executives said in Seattle.
Much of this theft takes place in cyberspace. President Obama has sent a clear signal that he considers China's cyberespionage an act of "aggression" and that he plans significant sanctions unless Xi takes concrete steps to curtail cyber-based theft of data from American companies.
In a speech to American tech executives in Seattle this week, you said they would be accorded protection in line with "national realities," which many people see as code for providing information about technology and political foes or dissidents. American technology companies have been encouraged to put their servers in China, which could make Chinese surveillance easier.
5. In the South China Sea, why rock the boat - or the reefs?
The Pacific has been relatively quiet since the Vietnam War ended. That has been good for Chinese and American trade and economic growth. Policing the Pacific is an expensive business, and fighting over it carries even greater costs.
Yet China has built up a handful of reefs, and is currently building four runways suitable for fighter jets along with storage depots and radar facilities. These reefs and other islands are disputed territories, with five other nations claiming sovereignty over them. China has ignored U.S. protests about its construction projects and ignored its own agreement to settle the territorial disputes peacefully in multilateral talks. Such talks seem more irrelevant with every ton of sand and gravel dumped on the reefs.
Yes, other countries have occupied disputed pieces of rock, but China's occupation of reefs and its buildup on them for fighter jets carries that to another level.
Are you really prepared to risk conflict over these barren outposts? Are you contemplating action that would interfere with the free trade and navigation in the South China Sea that has served China so well for decades?
6. Do you like Big Macs and are you looking forward to sharing one with Donald Trump?
The leading Republican presidential candidate said that if he were president, he would have cancelled the state dinner and taken you to McDonald's. That would give you a good opportunity to take on the mouthful of criticism leveled by the New York real estate baron. Trump has complained about the value of the Chinese currency and said that China has "taken our jobs away." He said that he would be able to out-negotiate China.
Although a bit of China bashing is not unusual during American presidential campaigns, this year the volume has been turned up high. What do you have to say that might ease anxiety in Congress and among GOP candidates and turn this state dinner into a happy meal?
© 2015 The Washington Post
1. Do you think China needs a strong leader in the Mao model?
Like other urban Chinese who came of age during the Cultural Revolution, you spent time in the poor countryside and were sufficiently self-motivated to independently study and gain admission to university afterward. And during that time, the country was turned upside down by internal battles within the Chinese Communist Party. Your father was purged even before the Cultural Revolution.
Now many people say you are burnishing your own image to be more like Chairman Mao Zedong than other more recent Chinese leaders. What political lessons do you draw from the Cultural Revolution, and how does that affect the way you deal with corruption, rivals in the party and your own images such as the ones of you in an updated Mao outfit riding in the recent military parade?
2. How can you expect the Chinese people to respect the rule of law when the government fails to do so?
China claims to be governed by the rule of law, and in your anti-corruption campaign, you have tried to impose the rule of law. Yet over the summer, the government detained or questioned at least 277 lawyers and rights activists. Dozens remain in custody without charge. Just one month ago, the government detained a lawyer in Wenzhou in the middle of the night; his firm protested that he "handled cases in complete compliance with procedures." Dissidents, including jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, languish in prison while others, including Liu's wife, are subject to house arrest without ever being charged with an offense. How do you explain that?
3. Will you shelve the draft law on nongovernmental organizations?
The Chinese government has issued a proposed law imposing tough requirements on non-governmental organizations in China, including foreign NGOs. The law would require NGOs to register, file detailed accounting of funding sources and comply with vague standards of political compliance - such as promoting "the development of Chinese public welfare."
The new rule could cripple the NGO sector, including environmental groups, educational institutions, the Ford Foundation, medical institutions with joint research projects. In the worst case, it could apply to university singing group tours or events to network with Chinese alumni of American universities. U.S. nongovernmental organizations have helped train a generation of Chinese leaders, made buildings more energy-efficient, and saved lives through more effective medical procedures.
Some universities are also worried about extraterritorial effects of the draft law, such as holding China-based individuals accountable for events - such as a talk by a Chinese dissident - that might take place in the United States.
A group of leading U.S. universities has submitted a letter warning that they would consider closing their Chinese campuses. Even the Tsinghua University law school has proposed revisions. The government may have had China's own civil society and specific NGOs in mind when it drafted the law, but do you believe civil society has little role to play in China's development? Aren't these rules likely to cause more harm to Chinese society than benefit?
4. What can the Obama administration expect you to do, and when, to crack down on perpetrators of cybercrime, state and non-state sponsored?
Given that trade between the United States and China tops $600 billion annually, business should be a bedrock of support for U.S.-China relations. Yet American business leaders have been irked by a wave of thefts of intellectual property that damages their ability to do business there. Moreover, China's demands that technology companies turn over proprietary source codes and its failure to open up certain industries to foreign business as planned have turned American business people into some of China's sharpest critics - no matter what the overly polite tech executives said in Seattle.
Much of this theft takes place in cyberspace. President Obama has sent a clear signal that he considers China's cyberespionage an act of "aggression" and that he plans significant sanctions unless Xi takes concrete steps to curtail cyber-based theft of data from American companies.
In a speech to American tech executives in Seattle this week, you said they would be accorded protection in line with "national realities," which many people see as code for providing information about technology and political foes or dissidents. American technology companies have been encouraged to put their servers in China, which could make Chinese surveillance easier.
5. In the South China Sea, why rock the boat - or the reefs?
The Pacific has been relatively quiet since the Vietnam War ended. That has been good for Chinese and American trade and economic growth. Policing the Pacific is an expensive business, and fighting over it carries even greater costs.
Yet China has built up a handful of reefs, and is currently building four runways suitable for fighter jets along with storage depots and radar facilities. These reefs and other islands are disputed territories, with five other nations claiming sovereignty over them. China has ignored U.S. protests about its construction projects and ignored its own agreement to settle the territorial disputes peacefully in multilateral talks. Such talks seem more irrelevant with every ton of sand and gravel dumped on the reefs.
Yes, other countries have occupied disputed pieces of rock, but China's occupation of reefs and its buildup on them for fighter jets carries that to another level.
Are you really prepared to risk conflict over these barren outposts? Are you contemplating action that would interfere with the free trade and navigation in the South China Sea that has served China so well for decades?
6. Do you like Big Macs and are you looking forward to sharing one with Donald Trump?
The leading Republican presidential candidate said that if he were president, he would have cancelled the state dinner and taken you to McDonald's. That would give you a good opportunity to take on the mouthful of criticism leveled by the New York real estate baron. Trump has complained about the value of the Chinese currency and said that China has "taken our jobs away." He said that he would be able to out-negotiate China.
Although a bit of China bashing is not unusual during American presidential campaigns, this year the volume has been turned up high. What do you have to say that might ease anxiety in Congress and among GOP candidates and turn this state dinner into a happy meal?
© 2015 The Washington Post
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