NEW YORK - With the Republican primaries raging, the death of Whitney Houston and Obama submitting his 2013 budget to Congress on Monday, there has been plenty to compete for attention. But the visit by Vice-President Xi Jinping made major headlines in US mainstream media on Tuesday.

USA Today, the largest circulation daily newspaper, has kept coverage of Xi's visit constantly updated and in a prominent position on its website, declaring "Obama works to build important relationship with China".

On The New York Times website, coverage of Xi's visit has been prominent and updated with Xi's busy activities, in addition to its usual coverage on other subjects related to China.

The Washington Post website had been covering the topic days before Xi's arrival in Washington on Monday, but reports on Tuesday often focus on political and human rights issues instead of economics and trade.

The CBS report by its White House correspondent Bill Plante touched on China-bashing rhetoric in Washington, especially from Republican presidential candidates, but he also noted that Xi will be welcomed in Iowa because Iowa emphasizes trade and Iowa's trade with China is soaring.

Andrew Billo, senior program officer at the New York-based Asia Society, said US media tends to focus too much on the negative side of the relationship, including political, currency and intellectual property rights.

Billo said that job creation and economic growth should be the real topic.

"Even on the South China Sea, the US pivotal interest there should be economic interest and not military interest," he said.

Sebastian Mallaby, director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, said while these tensions could lead to suspicion and counter-suspicion, the US must break that cycle.

Noting that some disputes are going to be inevitable, Mallaby suggests the US should have a positive initiative to attract more Chinese companies to invest in the US.

"That's something Chinese say they like. Why not embrace that and say, yes, you will be welcomed here to put your money in a long-term way and help our economy," Mallaby said.

Chinese investment is "absolutely a good and positive thing. If China invests in the United States, it would divest from holding US Treasury bonds. It's good for both China and the US", he said.

Mallaby also said the US should encourage the Chinese government's ambition to make the yuan a reserve currency.

"It would encourage a lot of reforms in China, such as in the banking system, exchange rate and capital control," he said.

However, he admitted that many US citizens may be scared of the yuan challenging the greenback's status.

"I think we should embrace these ideas and work with the grain, not against the grain with respect to China. There will be some common ground to offset the evitable tensions in the economic part of our relationship," he said.

China Daily

(China Daily 02/16/2012 page2)