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    February 16, 2012

Chinese VP Concludes US Visit Friday in Los Angeles

   VOA News
   Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping speaks during a formal dinner at the
   Iowa Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa during his visit to the United
   States, February 15, 2012.
   Photo: AP
   Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping speaks during a formal dinner at the
   Iowa Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa during his visit to the United
   States, February 15, 2012.

   Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping concludes his U.S. visit Thursday and
   Friday in Los Angeles, with events expected to underscore the two
   nations' economic and cultural ties.
   California Governor Jerry Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
   Villaraigosa are scheduled to welcome Xi at the airport. The officials
   will then tour the terminal for the China Shipping company at the Port
   of Los Angeles.
   On Friday, Xi will speak at the China-U.S. Economic Trade Forum and
   participate in other events focused on trade and investment. He will be
   joined again by Vice President Joe Biden, who has been his formal host
   during his time in the United States. Xi will conclude his visit with a
   basketball game played by professional team the Los Angeles Lakers.
   Xi's trip has drawn intense interest as he is expected to become
   China's president next year.
   Despite an overall warm welcome, U.S. leaders have not turned away from
   sensitive issues. Biden and U.S. President Barack Obama raised human
   rights concerns with Xi during meetings at the White House Tuesday. On
   Wednesday, during Xi's visit to Congress, House Speaker John Boehner
   presented Xi with a letter concerning Gao Zhisheng, a prominent human
   rights lawyer in China who went missing nearly two years ago.

   Senator John McCain says he brought up a wave of self-immolations by
   Tibetan monks protesting Chinese rule, as well as China's veto of a
   United Nations resolution on Syria. "As I just mentioned to the vice
   president, there has been enormous and dynamic economic progress, but
   we still have Tibetan monks burning themselves to death, we have Nobel
   Prize winners in house arrest," he noted. "And the continued propping
   up of North Korea, a brutal regime."
   During a major policy speech in Washington Wednesday, Xi demanded that
   the United States respect Chinese claims to sovereignty over Tibet and
   Taiwan. He also called for more balanced economic ties between the two
   countries and closer cooperation on international problems, including
   tensions over North Korea and Iran.
   Tibetan protesters have turned out at several events during Xi's
   four-day tour, including a stop in Iowa.
   Xi visited an Iowa farming community Wednesday, 27 years after he first
   visited the area as a mid-level official.
   The man presumed to be China's next president spent an hour sipping tea
   with residents in the town of Muscatine, and many said he remembered
   faces and recited events from his previous visit in 1985.
   Later Wednesday, during a formal dinner in the Iowa state capital, Des
   Moines, Xi stressed his interest in person-to-person contacts. "I'm
   visiting the United States to help implement the important consensus
   that has been reached between President Hu Jintao and President Obama,
   and I'm here to build the China-US cooperative partnership based on
   mutual respect and mutual benefit. And I want to engage with a broad
   cross-section of American society to help deepen the friendship between
   Chinese and American people," he stated.
   In another move likely to be popular among American farmers, officials
   traveling with Xi announced plans to purchase $4.3 billion worth of
   U.S. soybeans. The 12-metric-ton purchase will be China's largest such
   deal to date.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.