JOINT STATEMENT ISSUED BY OBAMA AND HU JINTAO

JOINT STATEMENT ISSUED BY OBAMA AND HU JINTAO
According to an Associated Press Novemebr 18, 2009 report:
At a state banquet Tuesday night, the People's Liberation Army band serenaded Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and much of the Chinese leadership with American songs including ‘I just Called to Say I Love You’, ‘We are the World’ and ‘In the Mood’."
The joint statement that Obama and Hu issued was the broadest of its kind in 30 years of formal relations. It contained expressions of cooperation in relations between their two often-mistrustful militaries, on a human rights dialogue, on space exploration, and on shoring up Afghanistan and Pakistan — as well as the big topics of climate change, economic recovery, and defanging North Korea's and Iran's nuclear programs.
"It's wonderful to have the President Obama here," Lu Hualin, a middle-aged office administrator in Beijing's business district, said Tuesday. "I didn't watch the town hall, but it's pretty obvious that the Chinese really like him for the energy, intellect and charisma he brings to the conversation. I think we'll welcome anyone who has an agenda to better the world and work toward world peace."
Hu said each country should respect the other's "core interests" — code for Washington to end arms sales for Taiwan and support for the Dalai Lama's Tibetan exiled government. The Xinhua News Agency later quoted Hu as saying Washington should also ban advocates for Muslim ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, the western China region where anti-Chinese rioting flared anew this summer.