Bush-Hu meeting focusing on trade, military, human rights

While US president George Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao hoped their discussions inside the White House would cool tensions over a yawning US-China trade gap, demonstrators massed outside today to protest Beijing’s human rights policies.

The talks between Bush and Hu, who was visiting Washington for the first time as China’s leader, were expected to produce little in the way of substance on the trade dispute and no breakthroughs on the major irritant: China’s tightly-controlled currency.