China's Xi sells US trade elixir, personal chemistry

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China's leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping on Friday swiped away fears that his country's economic growth could stumble, and turned to courting American companies and states hungry for a slice of that growth on the final day of his U.S. visit.

Vice-President Xi and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden suggested that Xi's five-day trip, with its mixture of diplomacy and folksy public displays, could pave the way for steadier ties between the world's two biggest economies.

Xi (pronounced like 'shee') told a business forum in Los Angeles that China will continue to promote greater domestic demand and turn more to the United States as a source of imports and site for investment.

Despite recent economic slowing and persistent price pressures, Xi told the gathered business executives that China's economic momentum would not falter as some economists warn.

"China's economy will maintain stable growth," he said "There will be no so-called hard landing."

Xi is almost sure to succeed Hu Jintao as Chinese president in just over a year, and the final day of his tour of the United States featured commercial deals and reassuring talk intended to blunt American ire about the trade gap between the countries.

"We will further increase imports from other countries in the light of our economic and social development and consumer demand. We will actively expand imports from the United States," Xi later told a midday meeting in the city.

Biden, who accompanied Xi to Los Angeles, praised the Chinese leader-in-waiting's efforts to reach out to often wary Americans, but reminded him that rancour over trade imbalances and barriers had not evaporated in all the sunny goodwill.

"This is a little unusual for any foreign leader, particularly a Chinese leader, to want to expose himself as much to the American public," Biden told reporters, referring to Xi.

"The Vice President has been straightforward in the changes he'd like to see, and I have been equally as straightforward in the changes that we'd like to see in our trade and economic relationship," Biden told the midday reception for Xi.

"The crux of our discussion is that competition can only benefit everyone if the rules are fair and followed."

GETTING READY FOR THE NEXT DECADE
Xi is poised to become China's next leader after a decade in which it has grown to become the world's second-largest economy, while the United States has endured the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

He will most likely succeed Hu Jintao as Communist Party chief in late 2012 and as president in early 2013, and Xi's visit to the United States was intended to get both sides more familiar with each other for the decade Xi could be in power.

In that time, China's economic size and military capabilities are likely to grow closer to U.S. levels.

Washington and Beijing have often jostled over economic, political and foreign policy disputes from human rights to Taiwan and most recently Syria.

The U.S. trade deficit with China expanded to a record $295.5 billion in 2011 and many U.S. lawmakers complain China's yuan currency is significantly undervalued, giving its companies an unfair advantage.

The Obama administration has also accused Beijing of distorting trade flows by ignoring intellectual property theft, putting up barriers to foreign investors and creating rules that favor China's state-owned behemoths.

Xi's stop in Los Angeles was choreographed to blunt those complaints and make China's case that its rapid growth presents the U.S. economy with opportunities, not threats.

Scores of executives from major U.S. and Chinese companies, from Intel to Microsoft, lined up to sign deals after Xi's address at the economic forum on Friday.

They included 'Kung Fu Panda' studio Dreamworks Animation's venture to make films from Shanghai, and Chinese telecom giant Huawei's pledge to award $6 billion in contracts over three years to Qualcomm Inc, Broadcom Corp and Avago.

The Chinese trade delegation this week also signed deals to buy a record 13.4 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans, valued at $6.7 billion.

Xi said that he felt from his visit that 'mainstream American opinion' supports stronger ties. "I can now say that my visit has been fully successful," he said.

"We've established a personal friendship and a healthy working relationship," he said of himself and Biden.

'MISSION IMPOSSIBLE' FAN
More than the current, publicly stiff Chinese President Hu Jintao, Xi has made an effort to put a friendlier public face on his government during his U.S. visit, including revisiting the small town of Muscatine in Iowa where he visited in 1985 and stayed two nights with a family.

The 58-year-old former Shanghai party secretary found time for less weighty matters, including a visit to the International Studies Learning School in South Gate -- an urban Los Angeles enclave of mainly Hispanics -- where some classes learn Chinese.

At the school, Xi recalled his first visit to Muscatine, and said: "They gave me the same impression that, like Chinese people, they are warm-hearted, friendly, honest and hard-working. Twenty-seven years have passed, but that remains my impression, and it has become a deeper one."

Xi also offered a glimpse of his personal life, telling the students he enjoyed swimming and watching sports, including American basketball, baseball and gridiron football.

Once again showing his familiarity with Hollywood fare, Xi said it was difficult to find time to relax. "It's like the name of that American movie -- 'Mission Impossible'."

After their visit to the school, Biden told reporters the talks with Xi had been very forthright, and was also intensely curious about the workings of the American political system.

"This is a guy who wants to feel it and taste it, and he's prepared to show another side of Chinese leadership," said Biden.

He suggested the personal ties forged with Xi could make it easier for the two governments to manage conflict.

"He is intensely interested in understanding why we think the way we do, what our positions are, and the need to actually broaden this kind of understanding," said Biden.

Xi was due to watch part of an LA Lakers basketball game before he left for the next two countries of his current international tour, Ireland and then Turkey.