Bush, Hu find no breakthroughs on trade, Iran

WASHINGTON: The US President, George W. Bush, failed to win a commitment from the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, on Thursday on immediate steps to reduce China's $202 billion trade surplus with the United States.

Hu did give Bush a general assurance he was working to make the Chinese currency more 'flexible' but this fell far short of US demands for a dramatic revaluation of the Yuan as a way to make US products more competitive in Chinese and global markets and reduce the trade imbalance.

The two leaders also failed to bridge differences over how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions. Bush wants China to agree to tougher UN Security Council action, but his arguments did not persuade Hu.

Speaking in the Oval Office, the two leaders said their bilateral relationship had matured and they could discuss differences openly. "He tells me what he thinks, and I tell him what I think, and we do so with respect," Bush said.   
On a long-awaited visit to the White House, Hu received the 21-gun salute and full military honors the Chinese had coveted as a sign of respect.

But in an embarrassing episode that marred the South Lawn ceremony and created a diplomatic stir, a Chinese woman on a press camera platform heckled Hu just as he began speaking.  "President Hu, your days are numbered. President Bush, make him stop persecuting Falun Gong," she yelled, referring to the spiritual meditation movement that is banned in China.

She was led away by a Secret Service uniformed guard for questioning, and was later identified as Wang Wenyi, 47, a reporter for The Epoch Times, a New York-based newspaper that supports the Falun Gong.   

Chinese media ignores incident: Bush personally apologized to Hu for the incident. "I'm sorry this happened," he told Hu, according to Dennis Wilder, Asia expert on the National Security Council.

The Secret Service planned to charge her with disorderly conduct and was weighing more serious federal charges that she intimidated or disrupted a foreign official.

The Epoch Times apologized to the White House for the incident. But the newspaper said Wang took her 'unconventional actions' to highlight Falun Gong assertions that China harvests and sells organs from live practioners -- a claim China has vehemently denied.

Chinese media made no mention of the incident nor of the hundreds of protesters -- from yellow-clad Falun Gong disciples to Taiwanese nationalists waving green flags and Tibetan youth groups -- drawn near the White House by Hu's visit.

Talks between Bush and Hu began in the Oval Office, spilled into the Cabinet Room and continued during a formal luncheon. US national security adviser Stephen Hadley told Reuters China appears willing to resolve three of six-long standing human rights cases after Hu returns home. "We think we're going to make progress on three of them," he said, while declining to describe them in detail.