Reporting from Beijing - When it came to China, President Obama’s famous powers of persuasion failed to persuade.
He came bearing a long shopping list, including Chinese support for tougher sanctions on Iran and more flexibility by Beijing on currency exchange rates, but Obama was met with polite, yet stony, silences.
Only one more key meeting was scheduled for today before Obama’s departure, a working lunch with Premier Wen Jiabao. Before flying to South Korea, the president will tour the Great Wall — the famous symbol of Chinese tenacity and an appropriate backdrop for a visit in which China again showed its resistance to U.S. entreaties.
Not only is the U.S. president coming away without any definable concessions, but the Chinese appeared to be digging in their heels.
On Tuesday, just hours after Obama stood with President Hu Jintao in the Great Hall of the People, praising China’s commitment to “move toward a more market-oriented exchange rate over time,” a senior Chinese official called a news conference across town to issue a rebuttal.
