Washington:
It has been more than 13 years since a Chinese president has been the guest of honor at the most lavish party any White House can give, a state dinner. As host of such an affair Wednesday night for his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, President Obama is walking into a danger zone of protocol and international diplomacy.
Visits by Chinese leaders have often turned into protocol nightmares. When President Hu visited President George W. Bush in 2006, a heckler from the Falun Gong spiritual sect interrupted his White House arrival ceremony -- a major embarrassment for Mr. Bush that was compounded when the official announcer mistakenly confused the official name of China with that of Taiwan, which China claims as part of its sovereign territory.
When President Bill Clinton hosted a state dinner for President Jiang Zemin in 1997, his administration was besieged with specific protocol requests from the Chinese. The Clinton White House proposed putting up a huge tent on the South Lawn, big enough for 400. Mr. Jiang's advance crew insisted on a more intimate affair in the elegant East Room, just like the one President Jimmy Carter had hosted for Deng Xiaoping.
Perhaps mindful of that complicated history, the Obama White House is keeping the details of its dinner under tight wraps. Officials refused Tuesday to discuss either the menu or the guest list. Some tidbits, though, did trickle out: the actor Jackie Chan will attend, but the House speaker, John A. Boehner, has declined his invitation. (Mr. Boehner's aides said the speaker was not a fan of such formal dinners and would meet separately with Mr. Hu on Thursday.)
Mr. Obama wants to use the dinner to strengthen relations with China, an increasingly assertive power in Asia, even as administration officials acknowledge the two countries do not see eye to eye on matters like trade, currency and human rights.
China's checkered record on human rights has already raised questions for the administration about whether Mr. Obama should be according Mr. Hu the kind of pomp and circumstance ordinarily reserved for more like-minded allies. The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, is a political prisoner in China. And Mr. Obama himself won the prize in 2009.
"It creates a situation where a Nobel Peace Prize laureate is hosting a banquet for a leader who is imprisoning another Nobel Peace Prize laureate," said Michael Green, who advised Mr. Bush on Asia issues and helped plan Mr. Hu's last visit here. "How awkward."
White House officials, though, defended the decision to hold the dinner. "This is a customary welcome for a state visit, and a very important bilateral relationship," Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said Tuesday.
One official said privately that Mr. Hu was simply receiving the "standard package" of state visit pleasantries -- and experts say pleasantries matter deeply to the Chinese. President Bush, for example, irked Mr. Hu by refusing to host a state dinner for him; Mr. Bush did not want to confer such an honor on a leader who was not democratically elected. (They even disagreed on the name for the 2006 visit; Mr. Hu called it a "state visit" while Mr. Bush called it an "official visit.")
The Bush White House tried to compensate by offering alternate sites for their meeting, including the presidential retreat at Camp David, according to Mr. Green. But he said the Chinese felt Camp David was too small a setting and did not accord Mr. Hu the respect that his predecessor, Mr. Jiang, had been shown by Mr. Clinton.
"The Chinese are extremely protocol conscious and have an intimate knowledge of what has been done in the past and will use it to negotiate the kind of treatment they want," said Kenneth G. Lieberthal, who advised Mr. Clinton on China issues. "They will readily cite you past precedent; often their records were better than ones I could access."
The Obama White House is rolling out the proverbial red carpet for Mr. Hu. Besides the state dinner, the Chinese president will also be honored with a military arrival ceremony, including a 21-gun salute, as well as a formal lunch at the State Department hosted by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
But Mr. Obama will take pains not to look overly chummy with the Chinese leader. When President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia visited the White House, Mr. Obama took him out to a greasy-spoon lunch at Ray's Hell Burger -- a kind of buddy road trip that spoke louder than even the most lavish state dinner about Mr. Obama's warm feelings toward his Russian counterpart.
There will be no burger runs with Mr. Hu.