Sure, there is some controversy to the saga between the U.S. and China if your idea of controversy is the value of your currency to that of the nation that holds the bulk of your national debt. Zzzzzzzzzzz.
If there is anyone with the depth of mind to take on Hu and this tiresome nevertheless crucial matter it would be Barack Obama. With Obama, Hu is getting more than what he got the last time he met with a U.S. president - lunch (“That there’s a turkey sandwich and those are Fritos. Sorry about the plastic plates but they thought it might be insensitive if we ate off the china. Mind if I turn on Oprah?”). The low-key nature of the affair was due to the fact the Bush people did not want to appear to lavish so much attention on such an egregious violator of human rights.
The Obama Administration on the other hand figures that if one of the biggest commie-haters in history, Richard Nixon could famously break bao with the Chinese then why not them. Obama would like a chance to reset relations with the spurned Hu by having a proper state dinner with a bunch of CEOs of companies whose products are made with inexpensive Chinese labor. Yes, it just keeps getting duller and duller. Even John Boehner who loves CEOs could not bring himself to check the "sure, I'm in" box on his evite. This event is bound to be far less fun than taking health insurance away from children.
This entire visit will have a similar life to a Miss America pageant; it is being hyped as a special event, most Americans are probably unaware that it is happening, and unless Hu makes some unfortunate statements regarding his opposition to gay marriage it will pass unnoticed.
The leaders of the largest and second largest economies in the world already have about as much leverage on each other as possible without snapping bones. So there should be plenty of "I'll stop keeping the value of the yuan low if you stop your Federal Reserve from buying long-term Treasuries which devalues our stake in your debt." All lovers of Sino-American relations are at the edge of their seats for a doozy of a stalemate which some experts are calling the most important visit by a Chinese leader in 30 years. Back then it was Jimmy Carter and Deng Xiaoping and they apparently had three decades worth of fun times together.
Now the torch has been passed. It's up to the lawyer who excelled at basketball and the hydraulic engineer who showed promise at singing and dancing. Crises averted!
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