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Skriven 2006-04-20 23:33:12 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0604207) for Thu, 2006 Apr 20
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Press Briefing by Deputy National Security Advisor Faryar Shirzad and
National Security Council Acting Senior Director Dennis Wilder on the
President's Meetings with President Hu of the People's Republic of China
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 20, 2006

Press Briefing by Deputy National Security Advisor Faryar Shirzad and
National Security Council Acting Senior Director Dennis Wilder on the
President's Meetings with President Hu of the People's Republic of China
James S. Brady Briefing Room



3:37 P.M. EDT

MR. JONES: Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to this
briefing. It will be on the record with two people from the National
Security Council. We have Deputy National Security Advisor for
International Economic Affairs, Mr. Faryar Shirzad; as well as Acting
Director for Asian Affairs of the National Security Council, Mr. Dennis
Wilder. They're here to talk about today's meetings and events.

Q -- been demoted again? (Laughter.)

MR. JONES: Oh, pardon me. Acting Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the
National Security Council. And they'll be talking about today's events and
meetings.

MR. WILDER: Apparently, I've been demoted here.

MR. JONES: I'm sorry.

MR. WILDER: That's all right. (Laughter.)

President Bush and President Hu spent a lot of time together today, working
through the many bilateral and international issues that you are well
familiar with, but we will go into some detail on.

It was a very good meeting, set of meetings in the sense that these are
very substantive discussions they're having now. As we told you on Monday,
these two men have met five times in the last year, they've communicated by
letter and phone to each other, they know each other quite well by now,
they've very familiar with each other's styles. And so this is not a
meeting where they needed to take a lot of time to figure out where they
were going. They knew what they needed to cover and they did it very well.

I'll note one thing, that they had a long session in the Oval Office, a
shorter session in the Cabinet Room, and at the end of the Cabinet Room
session they realized that they were a little late for lunch with their
wives, and they decided to do something unusual, which is to sit together
at the table at lunch. And so during lunch they continued their substantive
discussions.

White House protocol is normally that the Presidents sit at separate
tables, but they decided that, because of the shortness of time of
President Hu's schedule here in Washington and the need to continue to
cover some of the very pressing international and economic issues that we
have with the Chinese, that it would be a fruitful use of their time to
continue discussions over lunch.

Let me talk a little bit about what we see as the key accomplishments of
today. I think it's important to remember that today is only part of a
package of meetings that we have been holding with the Chinese in the
run-up to this summit. In other words, the JCCT, which we talked about with
you on Monday, was very much a part of today's meeting because, if you look
at the statements that were made both on the South Lawn and then in the
press availability, the two leaders really talked in some detail about how
are we going to work on the trade imbalances, how are we going to make this
a fair playing field for Americans who want to do business in China, and
Chinese wanting to do business in the United States.

And I think one of the most important things we saw, which is part of
China's new five-year economic plan, is that -- well, the new five-year
program, but a five-point plan in that five-year program is a decision to
begin to move from the export-led economy that has served them so well over
the last quarter-century, to a consumer-driven economy. And we've had quite
detailed discussions in the run-up to this meeting with the Chinese about
what that means.

When Senators Graham and Senator Schumer and Senator Coburn went to
Beijing, the Bank Governor of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, presented to them a
five-point plan of how China's going to move forward on a consumer-driven
economy. And what they're talking about is lowering the savings rate.
Today, as you may know, Chinese save perhaps at some of the highest levels
in the world; 53 percent of their income, on average, is saved. And this is
precautionary savings. It's savings against old age, where you don't have a
retirement plan; or illness, because you don't have a health system that is
as developed as some other countries. And what the Chinese are now talking
about is how do we lower that? How do we start to make the Chinese people
begin to spend on their own domestic economy in a way that is going to
boost consumption and change this to a continental economy that stands on
its own. In other words, another engine of real growth in the world
economy. Much like the United States as a continental economy is an engine
of growth, China begins to become much more of an engine of growth by the
use of this five-point program to move Chinese away from all of the savings
to more spending. And, of course, that spending is good for the Chinese
people, because it will increase their standard of living over time.

I'll let Faryar, in a couple minutes, make a few more points about this.
But it is very important, because I think some people today want to see a
quick fix to the trade imbalance. And if there was one, believe us, we
would have tried to get that by now with the Chinese. But in the new global
economy, there is no quick fix. That's not the way this is going to work.

What we need, therefore, is structural change. And the Chinese are talking
about, in two to three years, coming back into equilibrium as far as their
global trade balance -- not the trade balance for the United States,
necessarily, because that's going to take longer, but their global trade
balance, as you know, has become a little bit out of sync, in the sense
that they have over $100 billion in trade surplus with the world last year.
And we need to see the Chinese start to change this so that, again, they
become more of an engine, there is more consumption in China, more
opportunities for foreigners to do business in China and to sell into the
Chinese market. And the Chinese are recognizing that, and they're
recognizing that this is an important role they play -- to use a phrase
we've used a lot and you saw a lot today -- as a stakeholder in the
international economic system, that they understand that the imbalances
have got to be addressed. And we have done a lot of work with them to
figure out how this will be done.

We'll set benchmarks. We know what it's going to take for the Chinese to do
this. Faryar, again, as an economist, can tell you a little bit more about
those in a couple of minutes. So, I would ask you to look beyond sort of
saying, well, why didn't you get a big currency move today? The answer is,
on that subject, that China's currency is beginning to move. It's important
that it's started to move. The Chinese are beginning to use their new
system for having a flexible currency. It's not enough, it's not nearly
enough. We're disappointed with how slowly they've moved to use it, but
over time we believe that they have the ability to use it more.

And one of the points I would make is, the Chinese, when we first talked
about this last year, said, if we do this, we're worried it will slow
growth. Well, the currency has moved over 3 percent in the last year;
growth in the 1st quarter was 10.2 percent for the Chinese economy. I think
it's hard to make a case that moving to this new flexible exchange rate has
caused them some sort of dip in growth rates. In fact, growth is still
extremely strong in the Chinese economy.

Let me move on to the key issues in bilateral and international relations
that were discussed today. As the President said, the subjects of Iran and
Darfur -- the Sudan -- and North Korea were key issues on today's agenda.
On Iran, obviously we feel and the President told President Hu that China
plays a key role in the Iranian situation. China has a relationship with
Iran that we believe it can use to convince the Iranians that they must
make the right decisions, that they must give up these nuclear ambitions
they have and must come back into compliance with their obligations.

The President made a point of this, and said that we expected more help.
The Chinese President explained what his diplomat, Cui Tiankai had been
doing in Tehran this last week, explained that they, too, had exactly the
same long-term goal, strategic goal, which is to get the Iranians back into
compliance, and that they hoped that we could find a way forward that would
work for everyone; that they, of course, are very keen on a diplomatic
solution in this situation. And we said we wanted to work closely with them
to find that diplomatic solution.

On the subject of North Korea, the President, obviously, very concerned
about the fact that the North Koreans have not come back to the table for
another round of talks since the 19 September agreement. We asked the
Chinese to continue to work on the North Koreans, to have the North Koreans
come to that strategic decision that they really need to make, that they
need to give up their nuclear ambitions, they need to open up in the way
that China has opened itself up since the 1970s.

And again, President Hu said he shared the same goals that the President
shares on North Korea, that they want a de-nuclearized peninsula, that they
are disappointed that the talks have not resumed at this point, and that
they are doing their utmost to try and get the North back to the table.

The President also raised the issue of a North Korean woman who was sent
back by the Chinese. And you know that we put out a statement on this
subject a couple of weeks ago. He said that he felt that China needed to
think about its obligations to these people, and its obligations under the
U.N. charters that it has signed on to and adheres to, and that the plight
of the North Korean people is extremely important. And we hope China can
play a more positive role on dealing with North Koreans who are trying to
find freedom.

On the subject of Sudan, the President made an equally impassioned plea on
the subject of the violence unleashed by terrorists and extremists, and
asked China to consider doing more to get the Sudanese government to come
into compliance. Again, the Chinese leader agreed with the long-term goals,
but was not in accord with everything we're trying to do in the short-term.
But we are continuing those negotiations in New York at the United Nations.
And we hope that we'll be able to see our way to a common understanding on
the Sudanese situation.

Let me just mention a couple of other subjects very quickly. The President,
in the area of trying to deepen the relationship between our two societies
and our two cultures, offered to send the NASA Administrator to China to
begin to talk about lunar exploration with the Chinese, to talk about some
of the things we need to do in space -- for example, debris avoidance and
other subjects. There are some things that the Chinese also have in terms
of sensor technologies and information that we are interested in, in terms
of global climate and other issues. So the NASA Administrator will probably
go to China later on this year to begin to consult on the subject of space
exploration and where we might have common interests and where we might
begin to work together as the two nations on the Earth with the most
ambitious space programs in the 21st century at this point.

Faryar, do you want to add anything?

Q Can I ask you a question on the topic before you do that?

MR. JONES: We'll take questions right at the end.

Q I'm sorry -- it's just about what was the Chinese President's reaction to
the request regarding the North Korean woman? You didn't say what they said
back.

MR. WILDER: I'm sorry. On that particular issue, I don't recall that he
addressed that. He listened to the President, he took in what the President
had to say, but he didn't make a specific response to that particular
point.

MR. SHIRZAD: Just to reiterate some of what Dennis said regarding the
economic aspects of the relationship. As we talked to you about when we
briefed you on Monday, the economic issues are obviously an enormous part
of the lens through which the American people look at the health of the
bilateral relationship. And so we worked very hard in the lead-up to this
meeting between the two leaders to be able to use this meeting between
President Hu and President Bush as a way to demonstrate that that bilateral
economic relationship is one that provides more balanced benefits to both
sides.

And so, in the broad set of events that have occurred in the context of
this particular visit, we feel like we've made some very good progress on
addressing a number of key economic priorities, many of which were part of
the deliverables that we reached and were able to obtain over the course of
the Joint Commission for Commerce and Trade meetings that our Secretary of
Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative chaired on our side, and Vice
Premier Wu Yi chaired on the Chinese side.

In terms of the meetings here today, the point that Dennis made I think is
the one worth most underscoring, and that is the commitment that China's
President made regarding their intent to move towards a consumer-based
economy. We have talked to the Chinese for quite sometime about a number of
issues on the trade side, with regard to opening their market, abiding by
WTO commitments, living up to intellectual property protection obligations
that they've undertaken, to move to more flexibility with regard to their
exchange rate, and to undertake the necessary structural reforms in their
economy to deal with the fact that they are an increasingly mature and
prominent contributor to global growth.

And in all those respects, I think what we heard back today from President
Hu was reiteration of a very important plan that the China Central Bank
governor announced on March 20th and which was enshrined, as Dennis
mentioned, in the five-year program that the National People's Congress put
out last month, and that is a comprehensive plan with a time frame attached
to it to move their economy from a export-based economy to a consumer-based
economy. And so the elements of that five-point plan in terms of increasing
domestic demand, reforming their pension system so that the precautionary
savings that Dennis talked about become less necessary for the Chinese
people, more flexibility in the exchange rate system, more market access
and increased imports are now part of a comprehensive program that the
Chinese have now adopted and their President has articulated as a goal for
their economy, here on the South Lawn.

In terms of the particulars, as Dennis said, we were not looking for this
meeting itself to do anything more than achieve the biggest sort of policy
objective we've had in the Chinese relationship, and that is to advance
them towards undertaking the necessary structural reforms to create a more
level playing field in our economic relationship with them. And I think
we've been able to do that.

Just a couple of areas that Dennis didn't mention. There was discussion
about energy, which is a common challenge of the two countries. There was
also a discussion about cooperation on dealing with the challenges of avian
influenza and potential pandemic.

Q President Hu mentioned the currency issue. He said he wanted to do
something about it. Did you see that as a promise to reform the currency at
some point soon? And did the President ever mention there could be trade
repercussions if the Chinese don't act on this?

MR. SHIRZAD: I think the Chinese understand well the political context in
which the currency issue is seen here in the United States. I think the
words that President Hu used was actually "reform." I think what -- if I
remember correctly, he actually specifically said that their goal is to
further the reforms of their exchange rate system.

What they did on July 21st -- and the President alluded to this -- was a
very important step forward, both in terms of moving away from the dollar
peg, but also in laying out a policy framework for how they intend to
manage their currency going forward. And I think we take away from China --
what President Hu said today is, a renewed commitment at the highest levels
to continue to move, and hopefully more quickly towards achieving what they
announced they wanted to do on July 21st, and that is to have a more
market-driven exchange rate regime.

Q Do you take today's commitment any more seriously than the one that was
made a year ago and that you don't feel has been fulfilled?

MR. SHIRZAD: Well, it's been fulfilled in the sense that they've begun to
allow the exchange rate to move -- the degree of movement has been
extraordinarily slow. We've been very clear in saying that the process of
moving to full flexibility in their exchange regime is something that will
take some time. But at the same time, we've said the progress that's been
made to date has been insufficient and that they do need to move more
quickly.

I think what's significant, in terms of what happened today, relative to
what happened on July 21st, is that you had a statement articulated by
China's President personally, which in the Chinese system, is an important
distinction.

Q Didn't he say the same thing when the President was in China?

MR. SHIRZAD: He may have. Frankly, I just don't remember. But a
rearticulation by the Chinese President of a commitment, particularly as a
part of a broader framework of policies that they want to implement towards
moving their economy away from an export-led economy to a domestic
consumption-based economy, is significant, in our view.

Q What you've outlined are not major breakthroughs here, this was a lot
more about kind of the choreography of the day. And a major wrench was
thrown into that with this protestor. Can you explain a little bit the
reaction of the Chinese, which we understand was not great?

MR. WILDER: At the outset of the meeting in the Oval Office, the President
expressed to the Chinese President his regret that, unfortunately, an
individual made the decision that she was going to disrupt the speech given
by the Chinese President. The Chinese President was gracious about that,
and frankly, we moved on into the very important substantive areas and it
never came up again between the two Presidents during the course of the day
that I know of.

Q Did the President actually apologize for that? Is that the word he used?

MR. WILDER: He just said this was unfortunate, and I'm sorry this happened.

Q Can you amplify a little bit on whether it's your feeling that the
Chinese delegation will accept that as an answer, whether they will really
believe that it was unintentional? And how serious a gaffe was this for all
of you who have been working so hard on these other difficult issues?

MR. WILDER: Well, first of all, we have worked very hard with the Chinese
on making sure that the delegation is secure, protected. They've seen our
efforts in this regard. You, of course, know of the barriers placed up to
make sure that Blair House is protected. And we certainly make every effort
to treat our guests well. I think the Chinese understand that.

Obviously, there is a tension in the Chinese system that goes well beyond
today over the issue of the Falun Gong. And so I'm not going to stand here
and tell you that they were at ease with this situation. But I would be
extremely surprised if the Chinese blame us for this. This is an individual
who abused the rights of being in the press corps. Reporters in this
situation aren't supposed to be making news, they're supposed to be
reporting the news. And this particular individual made another decision. I
think it's a momentary blip. I'm not too worried about it.

Q So may I follow? Demonstrations just outside, the first time I've seen
such a large-scale demonstration against the Chinese leaders visit in
Washington, including religious and political. And they were Chinese and
also people whose land and rights are being occupied by China -- so what
President -- do you think both Presidents got any message that how people
are frustrated, that how they are being persecuted in China? They are ready
and they want freedom in China.

MR. WILDER: First of all, the people protesting have every right to be out
there. They have every right to express their views. We do nothing to stop
them from exercising their rights of free speech here in the United States.

The President -- President Bush talks to President Hu about the subject of
freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom to worship. And so that
subject came up again today -- not in the context of the specific
individual, but in the more general context that we continue to believe
that there are -- that China has some way to go on this area, that a modern
society that has moved as far as the Chinese have economically must begin
to provide these kinds of freedom to their people.

The President, I might add, also raised the issue of Internet freedom in
China, and the fact that the Chinese need to be careful about how they
restrict the use of the Internet, that this is an important thing -- again,
in a modern and free society.

Q Can I just follow, please? I mean he should -- as far as India, Pakistan,
or any issue as far as South Asia is concerned --

MR. WILDER: As we signaled on Monday, the President did bring up the
subject of the new civil nuclear deal with India. He explained that this
deal was designed, intended to help with the fossil fuel situation in the
world; that if we are going to find a way through this difficulty we all
know we are facing, in terms of the -- that there are limits on that
supply, that we have to start moving to alternative energy sources, and
civil nuclear is an obvious and excellent choice, and a safe choice these
days.

And so the President explained that; explained also to the Chinese
President that we aren't engaged in some sort of zero-sum game between
China and India, that our goal in moving forward with India is a stable
relationship that is not designed as some sort of counter.

Q What were President's Bush and Hu reaction to House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi's statement, "Today President Bush will roll out the red carpet for
Chinese President Hu, a leader whose government brutally crushes freedom,
democracy and the religious expression of the Chinese and Tibetan people"?

MR. WILDER: I have no idea what their reaction to that is. I have not
talked to either of them about that particular --

Q What is your feeling?

Q What was his reaction when -- what did the President say when he brought
up the issues of Falun Gong and all of that, and what was President Hu's
reaction to what President Bush said?

MR. WILDER: First of all, the President did not bring up Falun Gong. Let's
be clear; we didn't discuss any specific --

Q But human rights issues.

MR. WILDER: But human rights issues, okay. You know, I found it interesting
that in his statement in the Oval Office, the Chinese President said
something about democracy that I haven't seen before. And he said that, if
there is no democracy, there will be no modernization. And he said,
expanding the democracy and freedom for the Chinese citizens is one of our
goals. That is a very interesting statement, because I don't think I have
seen a Chinese leader quite so distinctly make a link between the
modernization program and democracy.

I think that President Hu has heard from the President enough on this
subject that he's starting to think about it. Does that mean we're going to
see rapid change in China? Absolutely not. Does it mean that the Chinese
are beginning to understand that there's a linkage between stability in a
society and the freedoms? I think we're starting to see some glimmers. I
hope we are.

Q Was there any progress regarding Iran and the U.N. Security Council
economic sanctions, the possibility? Was that even part of the discussion?

MR. WILDER: Those discussions are taking place in other contexts. We had
Nick Burns, of course, in Moscow discussing this not only with the Chinese,
but others. There are continuing discussions up at the United Nations on
this subject. Today was more a discussion of we need to work together,
making sure we were in agreement on the broad goals and how we need to deal
with the Iranian situation. But as far as the specifics of what the next
step is, they really didn't get into that.

Q President Hu has been reluctant in the past to take questions alongside
President Bush. At what point was the decision made to take questions today
at the pool event? And was there any resistance to that?

MR. WILDER: First of all, this visit has been planned ever since last
summer, so we've had a lot of discussions about a lot of different parts of
this because it was actually a September event. But in the run-up if I can
remember, we did have a discussion at the working levels about how would we
deal with this. And the Chinese decided they were comfortable with a couple
of questions at the end of the Oval Office session. And so that's the
decision we made. This was made I would say weeks ago.

Q Sir, did they discuss Russia or any post-Soviet countries in Central
Asia, maybe in the context of the Shanghai Security Organization, something
like that?

MR. WILDER: They did discuss for a couple of minutes the subject of the
Shanghai Security Organization. And President Bush asked some questions
about where was that organization going; what did President Hu see as the
purpose of the organization. You will recall that last summer there was a
statement that we found from the Shanghai Security Organization that,
frankly, we found perplexing and a little disturbing. And the President
asked President Hu about that, and asked about where did he see that
organization going in the future.

President Hu, I should say, assured the President that the SSO is not an
anti-American organization, and that their goal is more on the economic
side and antiterrorism. And we were glad to hear that.

Q If the President ultimately favors markets to determine currency values,
why did he say he wants the Chinese currency rate to rise?

MR. SHIRZAD: I think there's no doubt that the Chinese currency is
artificially depressed in terms of its value. They intervene very heavily
in the currency markets. Witness the fact that they just succeeded Japan as
the world's largest holder of U.S. Treasuries. That's in large part because
they're out there buying dollars and putting out their Chinese currency, in
part, to keep the currency at a low level. So I don't think there's much of
a debate that the currency is artificially under-valued. I think what the
President is saying is what we've said consistently, and that we want the
market to be a stronger factor in determining the value of their exchange
rate.

Q On the discussion on North Korea, since the last time that the two men
met, President Hu has been to North Korea, the North Korean leader has been
to Beijing, and the six-party talks have not reconvened and fundamentally
appear stalemated. Did President Hu indicate what he had heard from Kim
Jong-il? And did he in any way urge President Bush to come up with a more
concrete plan of incentives for the North Koreans?

MR. WILDER: I'm a little reluctant to say because I know there was a
discussion at lunchtime that I was not privy to. And so I'm going to be
very careful that I can't tell you exactly what was said at lunchtime on
the subject. I know it was something they continued the discussion on
because it's such an important issue.

But in terms of what was said in the Oval Office meeting about this,
President Hu expressed his frustration that the talks have not reconvened,
and that he would like to work with us to try and find a way forward. He
told the President that he had been working very hard on this issue, and
that he was eager to see the talks reconvene, and that we need to find a
way to do that.

Q Did he suggest any concrete steps on the United States' part?

MR. WILDER: He did not suggest any particular concrete step. He alluded to
the fact of the defensive measures that we have put in place, and suggested
that the North was a little disturbed by those measures, but he didn't say,
you need to end those measures, in any way, shape or form. He simply said
that the North has indicated this was an impediment, from their point of
view.

Q A question maybe for Faryar. President Hu, in his speech in Seattle,
outlined five or six areas where he'd like to see more regular discussions.
He didn't use the word "framework," I don't think, but he mentioned energy
and trade and all sorts of things. I guess I'm a little surprised that
there's not an announcement here that the U.S. would be receptive to that,
and would be exploring something like that. Can you talk about that? Is
that an idea that's still alive and needs further discussion, or is it not
something the U.S. wants?

MR. SHIRZAD: I think you can go back to the 2003 visit of Premier Wen, at
which there was a lot of discussion about the frameworks that we used to --
in our bilateral engagement with the Chinese. And what the Chinese have
always said to us, and Premier Wen said in 2003, and I think it's echoed in
what you heard in Seattle, is that there are mechanisms of dialogue that
the Chinese find extraordinarily important, in terms of taking issues of
interest and funneling them through more formalized mechanisms for
discussion. We have a number of dialogues going on with them -- the JCCT,
this Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade, I talked about is one. There's
the Joint Economic Commission that our Treasury Secretary chairs with his
counterpart on the Chinese side. There's the strategic dialogue that Bob
Zoellick chairs. There's a number of these mechanisms that we have, and
we're also open to either deepening the dialogue or finding new topic
areas. So I don't think it's a matter of needing to find a new mechanism
for these issues, it's a matter of taking those issues and making sure we
make substantive progress.

Q A question on Taiwan. The President said today -- President Bush said
today that no corrective action or a changing of status quo from either
side. When the Taiwanese leadership announced the Unification Council,
which has been in place for more than a decade, will cease to function, do
you view that as provocative or changing the status quo? If it's not, what
then, is?

MR. WILDER: We did not, in any way, make a determination if that was a
change to the status quo. The President of Taiwan, under his executive
powers, had the ability to place that organization in abeyance. That's a
decision he chose to make. It's not a decision that we particularly thought
was going to advance the cause of peace and stability on the Taiwan Strait,
but we understood that this was something he felt strongly about doing.

In terms of altering the status quo, the Taiwan President, I think recently
in a French magazine interview, has reiterated his pledge to the Four Nos.
I think that's a very positive sign. We are going to hold them to that
pledge. We believe those pledges are important to maintaining the status
quo. And at this point, the President today made a very strong statement
about where he is on Taiwan, clear and consistent position. And the Chinese
President, I think, appreciated that.

Q Follow-up. Sir, the President said during the press availability that he
did not support Taiwan independence, whereas President Hu said that the
President told him that Mr. Bush opposes Taiwan independence. As you know,
there is some kind of a nuance there, oppose and support. Could you tell us
what the President actually said to President Hu? Does he not support or
oppose?

MR. WILDER: The President today, in every time he mentioned the subject,
said he does not support Taiwan independence.

Q Any more information on this heckler? Was it appropriate for her to be
admitted? Is she a real journalist? Do we know why it took so long to shut
her up?

MR. JONES: I'll address that. She is, in fact, an accredited journalist to
The Epoch Times. She faxed a petition to enter the event. We had had her
Social Security number, date of birth, all the appropriate information. We
looked into that, whether or not she was a legitimate journalist. She was,
and she was admitted entry.

Q What was the publication?

MR. JONES: Epoch Times. E-P-O-C-H T-I-M-E-S.

Q On the Pacific region, was there any discussion of the tensions between
Japan and China? Anything about Prime Minister Koizumi's visits to
Yasukuni? Anything like that?

MR. WILDER: That did not come up.

Q On what topic would you say the most progress was made today?

MR. WILDER: Again, as Faryar has said, the big topic for us is really this
commitment that the Chinese understand that structural change of the
Chinese economy is a very important step. You know, if you look back at
American history, we had a high savings rate at one point, too, in the
early 1900s.

Q Then we got MasterCards.

MR. WILDER: That's it. And we're doing well. (Laughter.)

Q Yes, right.

MR. WILDER: Are you suggesting the Chinese shouldn't get MasterCards?
(Laughter.)

Q That's the area the most progress was made on? We know it's the most
important topic, but is that the area today where the most progress was
made?

MR. WILDER: I think having the President of China at the White House, on
the White House lawn, making this kind of a commitment to a vision of
China's future as an economic power, is a very big statement. And I've
followed China for 25 years, and I'll tell you, when they do a thing like
this and make a statement like that, it is important. He would not say it
on the lawn of the White House if he was not going to commit to making
these changes.

Q Did they discuss the Kosovo issue, since China is playing a very close
role at the -- in the Security Council?

MR. WILDER: That issue -- first of all, we had two hours this morning, and
there were lots of issues that we could have discussed. Unfortunately, that
didn't come up.

Q Not at all?

MR. WILDER: Not at all.

Q The role of the Chinese government in the six-party talks -- Chinese
government didn't improve their own human rights condition. How does the
United States trust the Chinese government can convince North Korea? The
United States continues convincing -- I mean, trusts Chinese government can
in the six-party talks?

MR. WILDER: Well, first of all, China's interest in a denuclearized
peninsula, and peace and stability in Northeast Asia I think is pretty
self-evident. The Chinese do not want to see the region become nuclear, and
they certainly understand that this is a destabilizing factor in an area on
their border. So we feel the Chinese are quite sincere in our discussions
with them that they want to work on this problem with us. The North Koreans
are not the easiest of people to deal with. The North Koreans are very
strong-headed about what they're doing and how they're doing it, but I
think the Chinese are trying very hard.

The visit of the North Korean leader to China was, in part, an attempt by
the Chinese to demonstrate the benefits of opening the society, changing
the society. After all, China was able to change the society, and it did
not lead to a disruption of the sort that perhaps the North Koreans fear.
So I think the Chinese self-interest here is a motivator, whether or not
you trust all of their motivations.

Q I'm wondering. You said that President Bush would bring up China's
non-transparent military build-up, and the expansion opposite Taiwan. Did
he do so? And what did President Hu say?

MR. WILDER: We did talk a little bit about that today in the context of the
military-to-military relationship between the United States and China. I
think we are going to see some new visits back-and-forth between military
leaders. And there was discussion of Secretary Rumsfeld's successful visit
to China last year. I think we'll see a return visit, probably by the head
of China's Second Artillery Corps, sometime in the near future. That's
their version of the strategic rocket forces. I think that it's important
to continue to try and press them on transparency through having those
kinds of dialogues. So, yes, the subject was raised, and there was some
forward movement.

Q Was there enough from this meeting -- there's plenty of anti-China
sentiment on Capitol Hill -- was there enough from this summit to try to
tamp that down? And what would you point to as a result of this meeting to
try to reduce some of that anti-China sentiment? And on a related note,
does the White House have a position on the Grassley-Baucus legislation
that would make it easier potentially to crack down on China's currency --

MR. SHIRZAD: What we were hoping to do with this visit is to get real
results on the various economic issues that continue to frustrate a lot of
observers of the trade that we have with China. I think as Dennis and I
have both said, we felt we made important progress in terms of the
commitment that was articulated and how it was articulated, and the fact
that it was articulated here on the South Lawn. But the degree to which it
has an impact on Congress or on the perceptions of the American people
really ultimately depends on follow-through. I think the President alluded
to that in the press availability they did after they did their first
meeting in the Oval Office. And that's a consistent theme when we talk to
the Chinese, that the commitments are important, and certainly the
commitment that President Hu made today is particularly important. But in
the end of the day, it's a matter of what kind of follow-through there is
and what kind of results we see. And that's really where our focus is. And
I think that will be where we'll find the answer to your question about
what impact it will have on Congress and elsewhere.

In terms of Grassley-Baucus, we have not yet taken a position on it.

Q Did the two Presidents discuss anything in terms of the environment, in
terms of the clean air deterioration in China and the global impact it may
have in the future?

MR. SHIRZAD: Dennis may have more than I because he was privy to some of
the discussions I was not privy to. But there was discussions about the
climate issue in the context of the Asia Pacific Partnership, and in the
context of the energy issue that Dennis alluded to. We actually have
brought China in as a founding partner in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on
Clean Development and Climate, which is an initiative that we have
undertaken with six countries altogether to advance cooperation on energy
issues, climate issues, and environment issues. And that was a part of the
discussion that we had today.

Dennis, I don't know if you have more.

MR. WILDER: That's where we were.

Q Did President Bush express any concern about what the Pentagon says is
this huge military build-up going on across the Taiwan Strait? You sort of
suggest that he didn't really say much about it.

MR. WILDER: Well, I think if you look at the statement the President made
on the lawn and he talked about both sides needing to be careful about
their actions, that certainly was a reference not only to any actions that
may take place on Taiwan, but also about the military situation.

The Chinese know where we stand on this. I can point you to the National
Security Strategy that we put out that the President signed and read and
edited in March. We have the Quadrennial Defense Review that made allusions
to this subject. So I don't think that at every meeting he's got to go
through all the details. We certainly have an ongoing discussion with them
about this. They know of our concerns about the situation on the Taiwan
Strait. And as I say, the President did make allusions to the fact that
both sides need to be careful about what they're doing there.

Q Based on what you heard today, is it still possible that the Treasury
Department in its currency review could label China a currency manipulator
when that review comes out later this -- in a few weeks?

MR. SHIRZAD: Well, remember, the framework that Treasury uses to make its
determination is laid out in the statute, and it's very much of a decision
for Treasury to make. They have not yet, as you know, issued their report.
But in terms of how they want to make their decision, and analytically,
whether anything that occurred today affects that outcome I think is really
for them to say.

Q Did that specific topic come up, do you know? Did the Chinese President
raise that issue or did that come up?

MR. SHIRZAD: There was no specific discussion that I saw about the exchange
rate report, but the exchange rate issue came up repeatedly over the course
of the day, both in terms of the President's statement on the South Lawn,
President Hu's statement on the South Lawn. It came up in the course of
their press availability after their initial meeting in the day. It's an
important issue, and it's permeated the discussions during and around the
visit, since we've been -- over the last week and beyond.

Q Did President Bush mention any individual case, for example, the New York
Times reporter, Zhao Yan --

MR. WILDER: The President brought up a list that he had provided in New
York at the United Nations. You'll recall that because the September visit
was postponed because of Hurricane Katrina, they met on the margins of the
U.N. General Assembly. The President talked about that list again. He did
not go through the names that we had on that list, but certainly the
Chinese know exactly which list he is referring to. I'm not in a position
to tell you exactly who is and who isn't on that list. It's, obviously, a
sensitive issue for families and I think the point of the list is that it's
a representative list of the kinds of cases that we think the Chinese
government needs to take a more positive position on.

Q You mentioned that the President brought up the issue of the North Korean
woman. Did he have any larger proposals about China's dealing with North
Korean refugees?

MR. WILDER: Yes, in the sense that what we would like to see the Chinese
do, put a process in place that we are all comfortable with for processing
people who come across that border. Obviously, the way the Chinese dealt
with that particular case was non-transparent. Their obligations under the
U.N. charters that they have signed are to have a process in place that is
understandable. Right now, we don't understand the process they use to make
those determinations, and this was an individual, you will remember, that
had family in South Korea, would have been easily resettled. And so we were
confused by the Chinese decision here. The real thing the President asked
for is a transparent process.

Q You mentioned that energy came up, and that the two Presidents discussed
it as a common challenge to the two countries. I was wondering if you could
be a little more specific as to how the energy issue was discussed, and
then within that, if Iran came up in that context?

MR. SHIRZAD: What they talked about, and it's a theme that they've, I
believe, have talked about before, but certainly the two governments have
talked about, is the fact that both China and the United States are
enormous energy consumers. China, in particular, as an emerging economy,
has rapidly increasing energy demands to fuel its economic development and
its economic growth. Part of what they talked about -- part of what the
President mentioned is something that he's mentioned before, and that is
the importance of diversifying away from oil and using other technologies,
including nuclear, as an answer to the energy challenges that a country
like China has.

In terms of any specific linkage to Iran, I don't believe there were any
drawn, unless there was something in your section.

MR. JONES: Thank you.

END 4:26 P.M. EDT

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