Rare state dinner for China's premier

Washington: Feeling snubbed, slighted even, when he visited five years ago, Chinese President Hu Jintao is getting a do-over — plus the White House state dinner he sought back then but was denied.

Today's opulent, black-tie affair with President Barack Obama — the grandest of White House soirees — will mark the first such event in China's honour in 13 years and it could help smooth tensions between the world's two largest economies.

Some big questions remain: Who will cook? Will first lady Michelle Obama's gown have an Oriental flair? Can the White House avoid mistakes like the ones that marred the reception when a protocol-conscious Hu arrived for an April 2006 summit?

For starters, Hu was unhappy that president George W. Bush opted for lunch over a state dinner.

Bush held few state dinners as president, preferring workman-like visits with foreign leaders over eating meals in a tuxedo. He also was sensitive to concerns in the US about human rights in China and was reluctant to be seen as going all out for Hu with a state dinner.

Welcome ceremony

But then Hu's pomp-filled welcome ceremony on the White House South Lawn, which included a military honour guard and a 21-gun salute, was spoiled when a woman protesting China's treatment of the banned Falun Gong religious movement began shouting during his remarks.

Bush apologised after he and Hu went into the Oval Office.

Compounding the insult, a White House announcer called China the "Republic of China". That's the formal name for Taiwan, the democratic island that China claims as its territory.

Today's affair will return the hospitality that Obama was shown at a state dinner in Beijing on his November 2009 visit.

A personal relationship between the two leaders is important for cooperation on several pressing issues in the time left on both of their terms in office, Asia watchers say. The visit is likely the last to Washington as president for Hu, a hydroelectric engineer who has ruled since 2002. He is expected to relinquish his leadership of the Communist Party next year and the presidency the year after. Obama is expected to seek re-election in 2012.

"The only way you can move policy is at the very top, and it requires a personal connection," said Victor Cha, director of Asian affairs on the National Security Council in the Bush White House. "Maybe this visit will be an opportunity to create some of that."

Hu is getting plenty of face time with Obama, including a second dinner. The more private meal at the White House yesterday after Hu lands in Washington also will include Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and aides to Hu.

Today's schedule calls for the arrival ceremony, a one-on-one meeting between Obama and Hu, an expanded meeting that includes aides, a news conference and, finally, dinner.

It will be Obama''s third state dinner, following those for India in 2008 and Mexico last year.

For each dinner, Mrs. Obama — who is responsible for planning the events with the White House social secretary — recruited a guest chef to help prepare the meal. But there was no word on who might cook for Hu.