China's president-in-waiting takes first trip to Washington

WASHINGTON -- During periods of high tension between the United States and China in recent years, one Chinese official who always seemed to be at the center of things was Hu Jintao.

But Hu, widely expected to be China's next president, nonetheless projects an unclear image in the United States as he arrives for talks with President Bush and other top administration officials.

Hu, now vice president, is variously described as a reformer, technocrat, pragmatist and hard-liner -- a man who harbors deep suspicions about American intentions in Asia.

Administration officials hope they will get a clearer impression of the man who is slated to replace President Jiang Zemin next spring.

When a U.S. reconnaissance plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter a year ago off the Chinese coast, Jiang was about to leave on a foreign tour and asked Hu to deal with the crisis.

The incident, in which the pilot of the Chinese plane was killed, soured relations for a time, but the acrimony has since faded.

Taking the lead

Two years earlier, Hu took the lead in articulating the Chinese government view of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during the NATO air war over Yugoslavia.

"The U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization," he declared, "brazenly attacked our embassy," killing personnel and destroying the building.

It was, he said, a "criminal" and "barbaric act." The Clinton administration said the embassy was struck unintentionally.

Five years earlier, at a time when the Clinton administration was pressuring China to improve its human rights record, Hu was quoted in the Chinese media as saying, "Interfering in China, subverting the Chinese government and strangling China's development are strategic principles pursued by the United States."

John Tkacik, who follows China at the Heritage Foundation, offered those quotes in asserting that Hu looks upon the United States with a "large amount of suspicion."

Tkacik says Hu also understands the indispensable role of the United States in China's plans to escape underdevelopment.

Hu recognizes that "to openly foster a sense of hostility will impact on China's economic development."

Hu, who spent the day Monday in New York, is to arrive in Washington today, with Vice President Dick Cheney as his host.

In addition to Bush, Hu also will meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and congressional leaders. All will be eager to hear his views on Taiwan and other East Asia security issues.

Bates Gill, a China expert at the Brookings Institution, said in an opinion piece in The New York Times that many observers, both in China and elsewhere, have high expectations that Hu will be a reformer.