On the whole, Chinese President Hu Jintao’s March 26-28 meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin was uneventful. As during past summits, the two leaders signed various commercial deals, issued joint declarations affirming Sino-Russian cooperation on diverse global issues, and attended high-profile cultural events. Much more noteworthy was Hu’s subsequent side trip to the Russian republic of Tatarstan on his way back to Beijing. During his March 28 sojourn, Hu met the republic’s leading industrial officials, visited a trade exhibition in the capital city of Kazan, and engaged in discussions with representatives from the republic’s major oil producer, Tatneft, [...]
This week, a Chinese leader will address the Japanese Diet for the first time in over two decades. The speech is to be the highlight of Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka starting April 11. His visit is expected to lead to closer relations between China and Japan, which had soured under Japan’s previous prime minister. Relations across the East China Sea have steadily improved since the anti-Japanese riots in China in 2005. Following the election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last fall, Sino-Japanese relations have rapidly improved, and appear to be on their best terms since [...]
The Year of China in Russia got off to a top-level handshaking start in Moscow this week, ensuring that whatever else might go amiss, visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao would have something to smile about, for the TV stations back home at least. But after three days of political pledges and promises with President Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders, the Chinese president has returned home without any progress on the one issue that hexes Beijing now — energy security. China cannot maintain its racing economic growth of over 10 percent a year without scouring the world to vacuum up [...]
