Thursday, February 23, 2012
Xi's movie deal a hit in U.S.
From The Hindu
Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping is clearly a West-Coast man. Soaking in California's excellent sunny weather, on Friday Mr. Xi enjoyed the hospitality of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, attended a Lakers game, and even managed to mend fences with Hollywood by sorting out a long-standing World Trade Organisation dispute on Chinese movie imports, a far cry from the relatively formal, sometimes-tense exchanges that he encountered in Washington a few days ago.
Even his harshest critic on this visit, his counterpart Joseph Biden, appeared to melt a little and complimented Mr. Xi on the movie deal. He said, “This agreement with China will make it easier than ever before for U.S. studios and independent filmmakers to reach the fast-growing Chinese audience, supporting thousands of American jobs in and around the film industry.”
U.S. access to China's burgeoning movies market has been a sore point for a while now and the conflict had escalated to the WTO after the government of Chinese government last year did not meet a WTO deadline to ease restrictions. According to the White House, China is a major export market for Hollywood and the U.S. enjoys a $12-billion global trade surplus on films and other audiovisual products.
The deal notwithstanding Mr. Biden, it appeared, could not resist reiterating the message that was frequently mentioned to Mr. Xi in Washington, that China had to provide U.S. businesses with a level playing field for economic competition.
“The crux of our discussions is that competition only benefits everyone if the rules to the game are fair and followed. So we will continue to work with the Vice President and the Chinese government to make sure that everyone is playing by the same rules on a level playing field,” he said, at a luncheon in honour of Mr. Xi.
Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping is clearly a West-Coast man. Soaking in California's excellent sunny weather, on Friday Mr. Xi enjoyed the hospitality of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, attended a Lakers game, and even managed to mend fences with Hollywood by sorting out a long-standing World Trade Organisation dispute on Chinese movie imports, a far cry from the relatively formal, sometimes-tense exchanges that he encountered in Washington a few days ago.
Even his harshest critic on this visit, his counterpart Joseph Biden, appeared to melt a little and complimented Mr. Xi on the movie deal. He said, “This agreement with China will make it easier than ever before for U.S. studios and independent filmmakers to reach the fast-growing Chinese audience, supporting thousands of American jobs in and around the film industry.”
U.S. access to China's burgeoning movies market has been a sore point for a while now and the conflict had escalated to the WTO after the government of Chinese government last year did not meet a WTO deadline to ease restrictions. According to the White House, China is a major export market for Hollywood and the U.S. enjoys a $12-billion global trade surplus on films and other audiovisual products.
The deal notwithstanding Mr. Biden, it appeared, could not resist reiterating the message that was frequently mentioned to Mr. Xi in Washington, that China had to provide U.S. businesses with a level playing field for economic competition.
“The crux of our discussions is that competition only benefits everyone if the rules to the game are fair and followed. So we will continue to work with the Vice President and the Chinese government to make sure that everyone is playing by the same rules on a level playing field,” he said, at a luncheon in honour of Mr. Xi.
Labels: Chinese Vice-President, Joseph Biden, U.S., West Coast, Xi Jinping
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
India not invited to lunch hosted by Joseph Biden
From The Hindu
In a move that could ruffle some feathers in the Indian delegation attending the ongoing Nuclear Security Summit here, U.S. Vice-President Joseph Biden on Monday hosted a lunch for leaders and officials of 11 nations that “included heads of government and other representatives from nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America that are members of the Non-Aligned Movement,” according to a White House statement.
As one of the founding members of NAM, the exclusion of India from the lunch was the subject of discussion at a press briefing on Monday. To a question on what India made of not being invited to Mr. Biden's home, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vishnu Prakash said he had no information about the lunch. On Tuesday, when asked the same question, he said the facts were still being ascertained.
While the White House said that the official purpose of the lunch was to “exchange views on nuclear security and proliferation issues and the urgency of addressing global risks of nuclear terrorism,” it also emphasised that the main theme of the event was non-proliferation, rather than non-alignment. In a statement, the White House said that the focus of the discussion was the “shoring up international non-proliferation rules… centred in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
Mr. Biden further underscored the importance of the NPT in his remarks to the gathering. He said, “The goals of the non-aligned movement and my country on the important issues of nuclear security, non-proliferation, as well as other issues have never been closer than they are today, in our view.”
If indeed the lunch was prompted by American efforts to engage NAM members in the run-up to this summer's review conference of NPT adherents, then the absence of India — a non-signatory to the treaty — is hardly surprising.
Delegates invited to the lunch were from Algeria, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Other NAM states left out were Brazil and Argentina, as well as Pakistan.
Labels: Joseph Biden, Non-Aligned Movement
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