Campaigners for human rights in China today called on Barack Obama to press Hu Jintao on the issue during the Chinese president's state visit. 
 
 They also urged the US president to "publicly and privately" demand the release of the jailed dissident and Nobel peace price laureate Liu Xiaobo and other activists. 
 
 The Chinese Human Rights Defenders network urged the US government to live up to its own promises, citing Obama's speech to the UN last autumn, which stressed that "part of the price of our own freedom is standing up for the freedom of others ... this belief will guide America's leadership". 
 
 Shang Baojun, Liu's lawyer, said: "I hope [as a result of the visit] the Sino-US relationship can be more stable and develop in a better direction. 
 
 "I also hope changes and improvements can be made in certain areas, including human rights and the situation of prisoners of conscience, at least to create opportunities which will introduce a different voice to President Hu." 
 
 Feng Zhenghu, a dissident who was not allowed back into China at the time Obama visited in 2009, although he has since been able to return, said: "I don't really have many expectations of his trip to the US this time. It is not pessimism, just realism. 
 
 "I think the topics will mainly be about economic and trade issues. As a citizen of the country, I care more about other things. It is not realistic to hope that a state visit can bring much change in those areas, so I don't have high expectations." 
 
 However, although Hu and Obama are scheduled to have one to one talks in the Oval Office later today, human rights and other concerns, which have made relations between the two nations delicate, will be sidelined for most of the first full day of a four-day state visit. 
 
 The US is putting out the flags for the major visit by the head of an equal – and by some measures greater – superpower. 
 
 Hu formally welcomed with an arrival ceremony, lunch at the State Department and a full state banquet at the White House, reciprocating the formality of Obama's state visit to Beijing in 2009. 
 
 Human rights activists are determined that the plight of China's dissidents must not be ignored amid the diplomatic niceties. 
 
 Placard-carrying protesters turned up outside the White House, although their presence was cut from news reports shown in China. 
 
 On his last visit, in 2006, Hu had a working White House lunch with President George Bush – something seen by the Chinese as a grave insult. 
 
 Since then, China's economy has grown to the extent that Hu and Obama now meet as equals. According to some analysts, China may already have overtaken the US in terms of the absolute size of its economy. 
 
 It is lending more to developing countries than the World Bank, according to the Financial Times, and its armed forces – the 2.2 million soldiers of the People's Liberation Army – are the biggest in the world. US exports to China, at $81.8bn (£51.17bn), are dwarfed by the $344.1bn the US imports. 
 
 China is mounting a public relations offensive coinciding with the visit, including an image of the Chinese basketball star Yao Ming towering over Times Square on a giant advertising screen. ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama issued a finely tuned call for greater respect for human rights on Wednesday in his speech to welcome his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. 
 
 President Barack Obama (R) listens as Chinese President Hu Jintao speaks during a joint news conference at the White House in Washington January 19, 2011. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque 
 
 Hu’s four-day state visit to the United States has become a lightning rod for advocates of China’s minority Uighurs, Tibetans, imprisoned democracy advocates and other disgruntled groups. Hundreds have converged on Washington to protest. 
 
 “History shows that societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all people are upheld, including the universal rights of every human being,” Obama said during a welcoming ceremony for Hu outside the White House. 
 
 “Harmonious Society” is a key ideological slogan of Hu’s government as it tries to maintain his Communist Party’s grip on power in an increasingly free market economy. 
 
 The activists, who say that rights conditions have worsened in recent years despite China’s rapid economic growth and expanding global influence, have pressed Obama to address their concerns both publicly and privately with Hu. 
 
 Some 200 Tibetans and their American supporters staged a colorful protest in Lafayette Park across from the White House, chanting “Who is a liar? Hu Jintao is a liar” and “Killer, killer, Hu Jintao.” 
 
 Two actors wearing 12-foot-tall (4-meter-tall) skeleton costumes chased down others wearing a long Chinese dragon outfit and attacked it until it collapsed on the sidewalk in front of a banner that said, “Hu has Tibetan skeletons in his closet.” 
 
 “We’re here to urge President Obama to raise the issue of human rights and freedom for the Tibetan people during his talk with President Hu Jintao, publicly and vigorously, because these are universal values and especially ones that us Americans ... cherish,” said Tenzin Dolkar, USA grassroots director for Students for a Free Tibet. 
 
 Nearby, members of the Falun Gong, a spiritual movement 
 
 China banned in 1999, held a silent vigil in front of banners and placards saying, “Please help to stop persecuting Falun Gong.” 
 
 Obama has faced criticism from the U.S. media and some lawmakers during his two years in office for appearing reticent about repression in countries like China, Russia and Egypt. 
 
 Obama was also under pressure from some U.S. lawmakers to raise rights issues with Hu. They argue that the U.S. president, who won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, has a duty to speak out to the jailer of the 2010 Nobel peace laureate, Chinese writer and rights activist Liu Xiaobo. 
 
 In a key speech on China ahead of Hu’s visit last week, week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Beijing to release Liu and “the many other political prisoners in China, including those under house arrest and those enduring enforced disappearances.” 
 
 China rejects criticism of its human rights record as interference in its internal affairs. ||||| (AP) WASHINGTON — In a rare concession on a highly sensitive issue, Chinese President Hu Jintao used his White House visit on Wednesday to acknowledge "a lot still needs to be done" to improve human rights in his nation accused of repressing its people. President Barack Obama pushed China to adopt fundamental freedoms but assured Hu the U.S. considers the communist nation a friend and vital economic partner. 
 
 Hu's comments met with immediate skepticism from human rights advocates, who dismissed them as words backed by no real history of action. Hu contended his country has "made enormous progress" but provided no specifics. 
 
 Still, his remarks seemed to hearten and surprise U.S. officials, coming during an elaborate visit that centered on boosting trade and trust between the world's two largest economies. 
 
 More broadly, Hu and Obama sought to show off a more mature and respectful relationship, not the one often defined by disputes over currency, sovereignty and freedoms. Hu said he wanted even closer contact with Obama; Obama sought again to embrace China's rise, and the two men shared some unexpected laughs. 
 
 The Chinese president was treated lavishly, granted the honor of the third state dinner of Obama's presidency. He was welcomed in the morning to the sounds of military bands and the smiles of children on the South Lawn; he was capping the evening at a black-tie White House gala of jazz musicians and all-American food. 
 
 Eager to show progress, particularly with the unemployment weighing down his country, Obama said the nations sealed business deals that would mean $45 billion in U.S. exports and create roughly 235,000 jobs. The package included moves by China to expand U.S. investment and curtail theft of intellectual property. 
 
 China's human rights record is poor and worsening, with abuses ranging from censorship to illegal detention of dissidents to executions without due process, according to the U.S. government. In a packed news conference - one designed to underscore the freedom of speech on Obama's home turf - Hu was pressed to defend his country's treatment of its people. He initially did not answer, saying he never heard the question translated, although the White House said that it was. 
 
 When prodded a second time, Hu defended his country's promotion of human rights. But then he added that China is enduring challenges as it develops and "a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights." He said China stood to gain from other countries' input, saying: "We're also willing to learn." 
 
 Click here for more info, or scroll down for additional updates. ||||| Three of the four top U.S. congressional leaders plan to skip a state dinner tonight with Chinese President Hu Jintao, highlighting tension between Congress and the world’s second-largest economic power when President Barack Obama is trying to strengthen ties. 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are taking a pass on the black-tie event at the White House. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, a critic of China’s human-rights policy, plans to go to the state dinner, the first for a Chinese leader in more than 13 years. 
 
 All three no-shows, through their aides, cited scheduling conflicts. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, and Reid, a Nevada Democrat who has called the Chinese president “a dictator,” are to meet Hu at the Capitol tomorrow. 
 
 “I look forward to the meeting,” Boehner told reporters today. 
 
 If Hu or Obama had concerns about the leaders’ decisions to stay away, neither would say. At a news conference, Hu deferred a question on the matter to Obama, saying the president was “in a better position to answer.” Obama never did. 
 
 Lawmakers in both political parties have been making hostile statements and proposing tough economic measures against China, including legislation to let the U.S. government impose duties on the nation for undervaluing its currency. 
 
 Scoring With Voters 
 
 Political messages critical of China scored high with voters during last year’s congressional campaign, said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who researched the issue while advising candidates. 
 
 “There’s no question that the American public looks at China as very much a serious competitor -- it’s not quite an enemy, but it’s a competitor -- and Americans are very wary of China these days,” he said. 
 
 Mellman, who has advised Reid, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and numerous House members, said virtually every candidate he worked with last year touched on the issue in some way. 
 
 Hu’s visit is focused on economic ties between the two countries, including more than $400 billion in annual trade, as well as differences over human rights, China’s enforcement of intellectual-property rights and what U.S. officials say is the artificially low value of the yuan. 
 
 Higher Import Duties 
 
 Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a letter this week that they will try to revive House-passed legislation to let U.S. businesses seek higher duties on some Chinese imports to offset any advantage from an undervalued currency. The bill died in the Senate last year. 
 
 At the same time, lawmakers preparing to receive Hu at the Capitol tomorrow are making it clear that the Chinese president is no friend. 
 
 “He is a dictator,” Reid told a Las Vegas television station yesterday. “He can do a lot of things through the form of government they have. Maybe I shouldn’t have said ‘dictator,’ but they have a different type of government than we have, and that is an understatement.” 
 
 Republicans and Democrats hammered at China during a briefing by the House Foreign Affairs Committee today. 
 
 Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California, a longtime critic of China’s human-rights record, called Hu an “oppressor” and a “murderer,” questioning why Obama was giving a respectful welcome to “a monstrous regime.” 
 
 ‘World Domination’ 
 
 Democratic Representative Albio Sires of New Jersey said China was seeking “world domination.” New Jersey Republican Representative Chris Smith suggested that Hu should be brought before an international criminal tribunal instead of feted at the White House. 
 
 The remarks were in contrast to the scene today at the executive mansion, where Obama and first lady Michelle Obama welcomed Hu with an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn. 
 
 Obama said the U.S. and China “have an enormous stake in each other’s success.” Hu said, “Our cooperation as partners should be based on mutual respect.” 
 
 Lawmakers’ slights of Hu may add to distrust between the two nations, said Dan Mahaffee, an expert on China at the Washington-based Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. 
 
 “It sends an unfortunate message that at a time of competition between the two countries, that American politicians are busy looking inward,” Mahaffee said, adding that lawmakers are playing to public fears. 
 
 Pew Survey 
 
 A January survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 53 percent of Americans said it was important for the U.S. to get tougher with China on trade and economic issues. One in five, or 20 percent, said China posed the greatest threat to the U.S. of any country, up from 11 percent in November 2009. 
 
 “Local pressure at the district translates up,” Mahaffee said. 
 
 Dozens of congressional candidates aired television advertisements last year seizing on the theme. In one, Reid called his Tea Party-supported Republican opponent Sharron Angle “a foreign worker’s best friend,” and said she backed tax breaks for “outsourcing to China and India.” 
 
 Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California made similar charges against her Republican rival, former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina, saying she shipped jobs “to Shanghai instead of San Jose.” 
 
 Chinese Wind Turbines 
 
 Republicans hit on the theme too. In a spot set to Chinese- sounding music, candidate Spike Maynard slammed Democratic Representative Nick Rahall of West Virginia for backing Obama’s economic-stimulus law, saying it helped fund projects powered by Chinese-made wind turbines. 
 
 “Only a politician who’s been in Washington 34 years would vote to help foreign companies create Chinese jobs making windmills,” said the advertisement, which featured pictures of Mao Zedong, the communist revolutionary who ruled the People’s Republic of China from its founding in 1949 to his death in 1976. 
 
 Reid and Boxer won re-election; Maynard lost. 
 
 The potency of China as a campaign theme was clear, said Clayton Dube, who leads the University of Southern California’s U.S.-China Institute in Los Angeles. 
 
 “Part of it is a genuine worry that the United States is being victimized by an all-powerful Chinese government,” Dube said. “The notion that things are not fair is a very powerful one. It resonates with Americans all the time, particularly in hard times.” 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Washington at jdavis159@bloomberg.net; Lisa Lerer in Washington at llerer@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
– President Obama has no shortage of things to discuss with Hu Jintao, who arrived in Washington yesterday—starting with the fate of Liu Xiaobo. Chinese human rights advocates urged Obama to “publicly and privately” press for Liu’s release, according to the Guardian, and that call was echoed by House Human Rights Committee Chairman Chris Smith, who told Reuters it would be “almost unthinkable” that a Nobel laureate like Obama to meet with “a political leader responsible for jailing another laureate” and not demand his release. Of course, Obama will also have a variety of economic issues to discuss, which have become thornier than ever, the New York Times observes. This time, Obama won’t just be discussing China’s cheap currency, he’ll be addressing complaints from US companies that they’re being locked out of the Chinese market by policies favorable to domestic Chinese businesses. Hu, meanwhile, wants to make nice, reports the Times. He's seen as a lame duck who "wants to go out with the country’s most important bilateral relationship intact,” says one diplomat.