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HONG KONG - Chinese President Hu Jintao, domestically stronger than ever, will have to defend the "made-in-China" label and is likely to face questions about trade and investment policies at an Asia-Pacific summit this week.
He is also expected to come under pressure over the harsh toll on the environment that China's economic explosion is exacting when he meets other leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) gathering in Sydney on Sept. 8-9.
Beijing, host of next year's Summer Olympics, has worked hard to build ties in the region and dispel concern that its growing strength is a threat, presenting itself as a benign bearer of trade gifts, prosperity and goodwill. Some experts say it has gained diplomatic ground while the United States has been focused on Iraq and the Middle East.
But expanding trade and economic ties have fuelled anxieties - China's huge trade surplus shows no signs of shrinking and worries about export quality have spread after a string of scandals from tainted toothpaste to toys coloured with poisonous lead paint.
"The Chinese have a situation that they need to deal with their international trade reputation, and I'm sure that's something that's going to be discussed," said Arthur Kroeber, managing director at the Beijing consultancy Dragonomics.
In addition, Beijing has taken a series of measures over the past year or so seen as making foreign investment tougher, including a brand new anti-monopoly law that allows for "national security reviews" of mergers and acquisitions.
At the same time, China's emergence as a major investor abroad, including controversial trade ties with Sudan, has been opaque and is raising questions.
"How is that investment being organised? Is it a co-ordinated strategy or not, and what are the motives of the Chinese government?" Kroeber said. "Should we be on our guard against China, or can we absorb this?
"I think that's one of the things the Chinese have got to do a little bit of work on, in sort of calming people's anxieties."
On the security front, Hu will try to allay concerns, but his last trip before Australia was a visit to Russia for joint military exercises of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a group some see as an attempt to counterbalance the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
Relations with Japan have improved markedly since Shinzo Abe became Prime Minister, but underscoring Tokyo's lingering concerns Abe in August called for a "broader Asia" partnership of democracies sharing similar values that would include India, the United States and Australia, but omitted China.
Some foreign policy experts say China has made gains in the region while the Bush administration has become increasingly bogged down in Iraq and the Middle East.
"China has very adroitly been expanding its influence in the region in a way that is not threatening to other countries in the region," said Robert Hathaway, director of the Asia programme at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.
But Shi Yinhong, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said that China's gains were modest and that in the past year or so others - Washington, Seoul and Tokyo - had made up ground.
"China's diplomatic superiority in this region, I think, has been reduced," he said.
The Apec meeting comes about a month before a twice-a-decade Chinese Communist Party congress where Hu, who doubles as party chief, will consolidate his power and further marginalise his domestic political foes.
That, analysts say, makes Hu stronger at home than many other leaders he'll be meeting, including US President George W. Bush, Japan's beleaguered Abe, and the unpopular outgoing South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun.
But whether or not Hu can use that to his advantage remains to be seen.
"The challenge is to translate his political power, and political authority into an open discussion of the economic problems and show people that he's on top of it and he can deal with it," said David Zweig, a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
- REUTERS
