China’s president-in-waiting meets Bush

? Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao warned on Wednesday that differences over Taiwan could hurt U.S.-Chinese relations, and he vigorously defended his country’s human rights record. President Bush told Hu he was confident the two countries can resolve differences on both issues.

Hu met privately with Bush for 30 minutes during the day and later said that “properly handling” the Taiwan question “is the key to promoting our constructive and cooperative relations.”

Protesters against Chinese government control of Tibet chant outside a hotel in Washington. The first visit to the United States by Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao brought warning about Taiwan inside the White House, and vocal dissent about Tibet outside.

“If any trouble occurs on the Taiwan question, it would be difficult for China-U.S. relations to move forward, and a retrogression may even occur,” he added.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush told the Chinese leader he was pleased with the state of U.S. relations with China. The two leaders discussed the war on terrorism, agricultural issues, Taiwan, missile proliferation, trade and human rights.

Hu is widely expected to become Communist Party secretary general later this year and president next year. He is something of a mystery man, rarely straying beyond the party line, and the administration has been hoping his visit here will produce insights into his thinking.

“For various reasons, China and the U.S. do not see eye to eye on some issues yet we can through dialogue on an equal footing increase our understanding and areas of agreement,” the Chinese leader said in an evening speech to the National Committee on United States-China Relations, an umbrella group that includes pro-business groups interested in promoting U.S. business interests in China.

He called Taiwan “the most important and sensitive issue at the heart of U.S.-Chinese relations.”

And he warned that “selling sophisticated weaponry to Taiwan or upgrading U.S.-Taiwan relations” would be inconsistent with U.S. commitments and serve “neither peace and stability for the Taiwan straits, nor China-U.S. relationship and the common interests of the two countries.”

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, has threatened military action if the island declares independence.

Hu said he believed that an overwhelming majority of the Taiwanese people would eventually support the idea of peaceful reunification because they would come to believe it would benefit them.

Hu also defended China’s human rights record, saying religious freedom was guaranteed by law in China. He said it had been no easy task “for a big developing country like China with a population of nearly 1.3 billion to have so considerably improved its human rights situation in such a short period of time.”

About 100 protesters shouted and waved signs outside the downtown hotel where Hu was speaking Wednesday night. “Hu Jintao is a killer, Hu Jintao is a butcher,” the protesters shouted through megaphones. Members of the China’s banned Falun Gong spiritual group were among those in the crowd. Another 100 counterdemonstrators stood next to the protesters holding signs welcoming Hu to the United States.

Earlier in the day, Hu left the White House without comment. Before meeting with Bush, Hu spoke with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials.