Xi meets with lawmakers before heading to Iowa

Feb 15, 2012, 16:40 GMT

Washington - Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping met early Wednesday with top lawmakers in the US Congress and was due to head to the Midwestern state of Iowa, where he spent time more than 25 years ago on an exchange programme as a low-level official.

Xi's US visit is designed as a form of diplomatic debut for the man who is expected to become China's next president. He held talks Tuesday with US President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.

US officials highlighted strong ties with the Asian superpower but also raised issues including trade imbalances, currency valuations and human rights.

In another impediment to relations between the countries, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that Beijing had barred a visit by a US ambassador for religious freedom. Suzan Johnson Cook, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, was supposed to have travelled earlier this month to China, but Beijing officials refused to meet with her and blocked her visa altogether.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Chinese officials had not informed the US that Cook's visa request was denied, but have taken no action.

In Iowa, Xi is to meet with his hosts from his 1985 visit in Muscatine, population 22,000, and be hosted for dinner by the governor in the state capital, Des Moines.

During Tuesday's talks with Obama, the president joked about the Iowa visit. The small, rural state is the traditional first stop for US presidential hopefuls because it holds the first contest in a series of state-by-state party contests to nominate candidates.

'The meeting began on a lighter note when Vice President Xi said he was going to Iowa on Wednesday, and the president replied that he, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Clinton all know Iowa very well,' White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

All three were rival candidates for the 2008 Democratic Party nomination. 'Of those three,' Carney joked, I would say that it's fair to say that the president probably has the fondest memories of Iowa.'

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