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The Secretary General of China’s Communist Party, Hu Jin Tao, is visiting the US this week, meeting with President Obama, members of Congress, and business leaders. A number of issues regarding US-China relations have been raised by the press, lawmakers, and protesters. Among them are China’s economic ties to the US. China owns over a trillion dollars of US debt and members of Congress and economists have expressed concern that China’s currency, the Yuan, is undervalued, potentially destabilizing the American economy. But Mr. Hu countered that Congress needs to do more to lift a US embargo on high-tech exports to China. But some commentators also argue that the US is destabilizing its own economy by printing up billions of dollars which leads to depreciation. There was little mentioned in discussions between American officials and Mr. Hu about the vast amount of Chinese exports to the US and its effect on jobs here, or the fact that Chinese workers are hugely underpaid. China’s human rights record has also been a source of contention, and was raised multiple times during Mr. Hu’s visit. Protesters for a free Tibet held a noisy rally as Hu Jin Tao was greeted by the President and First Lady. Chants of “Hu Jin Tao, Failed Leader” were audible while photographers clicked their cameras. Mr. Hu admitted in a join press conference with President Obama that China needed to make more progress on human rights. Meanwhile right wing shock jocks, Bill O’Reilly and Dennis Miller covered the Chinese leader’s visit by making jokes about Chinese food, and Rush Limbaugh went even further by launching into a 30 second mocking of Mr. Hu speaking Chinese.

GUEST: Jianying Zha, writer, media critic, China Representative of the India China Institute at The New School, author of China Pop and of the forthcoming book, “Tide Players: The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China.” Has contributed to The New Yorker, and The New York Times as well as a number of Chinese publications.