A meeting of minds.

President of China, Xi Jinping is meeting with Barack Obama in California today. However, Michelle Obama will not be there to meet Peng Liyuan, as Mrs Xi is known, who is famous for singing to Chinese troops. She apparently sang to them in celebration after the Tiananmen Square massacre. On the face of it it is no contest. Obama cannot get any bill through Congress. He has trouble appointing people to key posts lying vacant. Recent revelations that his administration has been engaged in massive spying on US citizens has angered many. Phone lines to 100 Associated Press journalists were being monitored. Phone calls of James Rosen of Fox News were monitored. Now The Guardian of Britain has exposed that the largest phone network, Verizon was forced by a secret court order to reveal records of all phone calls over a 7 year period. Numbers of phones where the call originated, numbers called and duration of calls were all revealed. Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook were asked to reveal data under a PRISM program. Apparently, this was legal under the Patriot Act passed by Republicans when Bush was president but there is widespread anger at what is seen as blatant violation of privacy of US citizens. So it would seem that Xi holds all the cards. Or maybe not. Seems that the Chinese economy will slow to 7% or lower. While this is enormous growth compared to other countries the Communist Party needs very high growth rates as a trade off for its repression of the people. Tight labor market is pushing up wages just as the global demand for Chinese products is reducing. Livemint, 5 May. According to Fitch Ratings financial lending by banks was 198% of GDP last year, compared to 125%, 4 years ago. Former Finance Minister, Xiang Huaicheng revealed that local government lending may have reached $3.3 trillion. Banks must stop lending to decrepit state industries. But the biggest drag on the economy is pollution. China has 16 of the 20 dirtiest cities in the world. Its factories are polluting the air, soil and water. Chinese people do not trust the food that they eat. One man was caught mixing rat meat with chicken. There was a shortage of baby food in Australia and the UK because of panic buying by Chinese mothers who refuse to use local brands. A few years ago 6 children died because of melamine in baby milk. Protesting parents were beaten up. True reforms will bring growth down to 5-6% which will be resisted by the party fat cats. To stimulate growth China has been stealing industrial secrets on a massive scale. So, will it be a meeting of minds?