Chinese President Hu Jintao, unbowed by pressure on a state visit, warned the United States on Thursday not to press on Taiwan and Tibet as he insisted the rising Asian power sought cooperation.
A day after a gala dinner at the White House, Hu had a frostier reception as he visited Capitol Hill, where top US lawmakers pressed him on economic and human rights concerns, including the jailing of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.
Hu afterward delivered a speech to US business and political leaders in which he urged “mutual respect” and said: “The China-US relationship is not one in which one side’s gain means the other one’s loss.”
“It is fair to say our two countries have never enjoyed such broad common interests and shouldered such important common responsibilities as we do today,” he said.