About 100 people — local business, political and community leaders and the Chinese delegation accompanying Hu — will be served a three-course dinner that is officially hosted by Gov. Christine Gregoire. The menu, featuring Northwest food and wine, includes fillet of beef with Walla Walla onions, asparagus and Alaskan halibut with spot prawns.
The food will be prepared by the house chef at the Gates residence, whose identity is one of the many things not being disclosed about the dinner.

Difficile che, tra un bicchiere e l'altro, i due abbiano trovato il tempo di parlare di Internet e censura:

(...) especially the popular MSN Spaces.
The service, at the moment, is largely inaccessible in Shanghai and Beijing. Trace route tests from Shanghai indicate that access is being lost at the level of the Great Firewall.

Besides, Microsoft will block websites as requested, so there really wouldn't be a need for any state action against the MSN Spaces service.

Ma chissenefotte, vero Bill?

La comunità cinese di Seattle però non ha partecipato al party:

Foes of the visit, including those who support the independence of Taiwan, the religious movement Falun Gong and Tibetan rights, are working to organize protesters to gather at Hu's hotel and possibly Bill Gates' Medina mansion, where Hu will dine Tuesday evening.

Domani alla Casa Bianca si parlerà molto di petrolio:

With crude oil selling for more than $70 a barrel and American motorists paying $3 a gallon for gasoline, American officials say the subject cannot be avoided at Thursday's meeting in the Oval Office, as it was sidestepped when Mr. Bush visited Beijing last fall.
China's appetite for oil also affects its stance on Iran, where a growing confrontation with the United States over nuclear programs has already unsettled oil markets. China has invested heavily in Iran, and as a permanent member of the Security Council, its position on the question of sanctions is crucial.

Per l'ennesimo parere sull'impatto della Cina nell'economia globale, oggi è il turno di David Ignatius.
Per l'ennesimo pronostico sulla caduta dell'America e l'irresistibile ascesa di Pechino, fiato alle trombe sull'Independent. Il Guardian è più cauto e capisce che il summit è più importante per Hu che per Bush. Tanto è vero che Xinhua sta facendo di tutto per esaltare l'avvenimento. Per Joseph Nye la parola chiave quando si parla di Pechino è incertezza:

Faced with such uncertainty, President Bush has offered China a strategic dialogue to encourage it to evolve as a ''responsible stakeholder." He can take a lead from Ronald Reagan, who used the phrase ''trust but verify." For China, the right strategy is ''embrace, but hedge."

Per Michael Klare invece è contenimento:

This objective governed White House planning during the administration's first seven months in office, only to be set aside by the perceived obligation to highlight anti-terrorism after September 11, 2001; but now, despite President George W Bush's preoccupation with Iraq and Iran, the White House is also reemphasizing its paramount focus on China, risking a new Asian arms race with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Trattandosi di Asia Times ovviamente il focus è antiamericano.

Il capitolo diritti umani comincerà probabilmente dalla Corea del Nord e da Kim Chun Hee mentre le relazioni pericolose di Pechino continuano indisturbate. Per far sapere che non gradisce, Washington si affida anche al cerimoniale:

Beijing's willingness to help contain Tehran's ambitions provides an immediate test of future intentions, of whether China is, as the official mantra goes, "rising peacefully." China has been reluctant to flex its diplomatic muscle other than in its own narrow interests. Yet if China wants, as it says it does, to be treated as an equal and a great nation, it needs to show that it can manage global problems responsibly.

Auguri.