Obama Warns China's Hu Over U.S. Trade Frustrations

(Newsroom America) -- President Barack Obama on Sunday warned China's President Hu Jintao that Americans were growing increasingly frustrated over Beijing's monetary and trade policies, as he struggles to create more jobs at home.

At a forum of business leaders on the first day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Honolulu, Obama adopted a harder tone with Hu than he has in the past, imploring the Chinese leader that Beijing must play by international rules and stop stealing U.S. intellectual property.

"What I have said since I first came into office and what we've exhibited in terms of our interactions with the Chinese is we want you to play by the rules. And currency is probably a good example," said Obama, referring to longstanding U.S. requests of China to let its currency float freely.

"For an economy like the United States -- where our biggest competitive advantage is our knowledge, our innovation, our patents, our copyrights -- for us not to get the kind of protection we need in a large marketplace like China is not acceptable," said Obama.

Reuters reported that later private conversations between both leaders focused primarily on economic issues and rising concern among Americans over the trade relationship between both nations.

"He made it very clear that the American people and the American business community were growing increasingly impatient and frustrated with the state of change in China economic policy and the evolution of the U.S.-China economic relationship," senior White House aide Michael Froman said.

It wasn't clear what sort of effect Obama's pressure would have on China, analysts said, noting that Beijing is the largest holder of U.S. debt at $1.1 trillion.

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