When President Barack Obama visits China for the first time today, he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker.
That stark fact - China is the largest foreign lender to the United States - has changed the core of the relationship between the United States and the only country with a reasonable chance of challenging its status as the world's sole superpower.
The result: Unlike his immediate predecessors, who publicly pushed and prodded China to follow the Western model and become more open politically and economically, Obama will be spending less time exhorting China and more time reassuring it.
It is a long way from the days when President George W. Bush hectored China about currency manipulation or when President Bill Clinton exhorted the Chinese to improve human rights.
"The U.S. is a very big and strong country, military-wise, economy-wise. It's still important," Zhou Jun, 38, who runs a garment business in Shanghai, told McClatchy Newspapers. "But compared to before, China has a lot more influence on the world."
Carefully chosen words
Obama has struck a mollifying note with China. He pointedly singled out the emerging dynamic at play between the United States and China during a wide-ranging speech in Tokyo on Saturday that was meant to outline a new American relationship with Asia.
"The United States does not seek to contain China," Obama said. "On the contrary, the rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations."
He alluded to human rights but did not get specific. "We will not agree on every issue," he said, "and the United States will never waver in speaking up for the fundamental values that we hold dear - and that includes respect for the religion and cultures of all people."
White House officials have been working for months to make sure that Obama's three-day visit to Shanghai and Beijing conveys a conciliatory image. For instance, in June, the White House told the Dalai Lama that while Obama would meet with him at some point, he would not do so in October, when the Tibetan spiritual leader visited Washington, because it was too close to Obama's visit to China.
Greeting the Dalai Lama, whom China condemns as a separatist, weeks before Obama's first presidential trip to the country could have alienated China, administration officials said. Every president since George H.W. Bush in 1991 has met the Dalai Lama when he visited Washington, usually in private encounters at the White House.
Similarly, while Obama was campaigning for the presidency, he several times accused China of manipulating its currency, an allegation that the current Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, repeated during his confirmation hearings. But in April, the Treasury Department retreated from that criticism, issuing a report that said China was not manipulating its currency to increase its exports.
Clash or compromise?
China is not viewed as a trouble spot for the United States. But this administration, like its predecessor, has had difficulty grappling with a rising power that seems eager to avoid direct clashes with the United States but affects its interests in many areas, including currency policy, nuclear proliferation, climate change and military spending.
In China, there's populist support for the American and Chinese governments working together to contain North Korea, clean the environment and save the world economy, McClatchy reported.
There's also mistrust.
On pollution and consumer safety, several Chinese asked: Doesn't American demand for cheap goods drive manufacturing? Don't Americans worry less when it's someone else's dirty air and water? On the economy: Why should Americans criticize the Chinese for how they manage their currency when the U.S. can print more money and expect China and Japan to prop it up?
Many Chinese like seeing Americans doing business there. While Obama talks about supporting free trade, however, they see his tariffs on Chinese tires as evidence that he'll usher in more protectionism if his political base demands it. Never mind the current trade imbalance that tilts a huge surplus China's way.
"He talks really nice, saying stuff about how he's going to change everything ... but on the other hand bashing Chinese trade," information technology consultant Wang Guanjun, 50, told McClatchy.
"China is a partner with the U.S. If we compromise, it's good for both countries. If America still doesn't want to do free trade, China is still going to become stronger," Wang said. "We have 1.3 billion people. We'll win."
No celebrity reception
In China, Obama will meet with local political leaders and will host an American-style town hall meeting with students in Shanghai. He will then spend two days in Beijing meeting with President Hu Jintao.
It seems unlikely that Obama will get the same celebrity-type reception in Beijing that he received in Cairo, Ghana, Paris and London. China seems mostly immune to the Obama fever that swept other parts of the world, and the Chinese are growing more confident that their country has the wherewithal to compete with the United States on the world stage, analysts say.
"Obama is still a positive guy, and all over the world most people think he's more energetic, more sincere, than Bush, more a reformist," said Shi Yinhong, a professor and an expert on U.S.-China relations at People's University in Beijing. "But in China, Obama's popularity is less than in Europe, than Japan or Southeast Asia." In China, he said, "there is no worship of Obama."
For instance, during the Bush and Clinton years, China might release a few political dissidents on the eve of a visit by the president as a goodwill gesture. This time, U.S. officials say, they do not expect any similar gestures, although they say that Obama will raise human rights issues privately with Hu.
"This time China will agree to have a human rights dialogue with the U.S. on some cases," Shi said, but "the arguments have changed compared to the past. Now we say, 'We are a different country; we have our own system, our own culture.'"
