Guess whose selling prowess was at its peak over the past two days? Barack Obama, the US President, was dubbed the US salesman-in-chief by the Reuters for his attitude during the press conference with Chinas President Hu Jintao.
As the two most powerful men in the world met, a lot was on the cards with regard to the much-touted Sino-US relations. But the cold strife between the two nations seems to be mellowing down to some extent, after the Chinese presidential visit to the US.
The Yuan, which has been the topic of much controversy, was also seen appreciating right before Jintaos visit to the US. It rose to a record-high of $6.589 earlier this week.
That the Chinese government is also encouraging greater use of the redback for cross-border trading, indicates that the ice on this issue has been melting, to some degree, from the Chinese side.
As far as the US is concerned, welcoming the Chinese president for a state dinner after 13 years says a lot on its own. With talks that the Yuan will climb slowly but steadily to become the worlds reserve currency after a decade or two, the US is realising the potency of China in the arena of international politics and economics.
And the Chinese have also been upbeat in their attitude towards their counterpart. After all, China agreed to $45 billion in US export deals, which are claimed to generate 235,000 jobs in America.
The star deal amongst these was the approval of a $19 billion contract to buy 200 Boeing aircraft for delivery in the next two years.
The White House also announced several business deals between the two sides - involving US companies like General Electric, Caterpillar, and Honeywell amongst many others.
However, these deals are not devoid of the shrewdness of Chinese policymakers in the diplomacy game since many of the deals had already been in the books of the respective companies. Thus the culmination of the deals by a final word of the Chinese president wasn a breakthrough achievement.
Besides, the value of the deal pales in comparison to the humongous trade deficit of $275 billion that the US runs with China.
But the agreement to open up the $80-billion-plus Chinese government contracts market was significant indeed. "That arguably is the most significant commercial commitment, assuming it is implemented", Reuters news agency quoted Jeremie Waterman, director for China at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
U.S. companies say this move would require them to transfer technology to the Chinese, indicating the strategic foresight of the Chinese in gaining from technology transfers to their own country.
However, many other areas such as software, in which the US loses billions of dollars to China due to pirated copies, were not spoken of.
So, while the US president is willing to sell China "all kinds of stuff", Chinese policymakers have carefully measured their steps. After all, the man who beat Obama to become the most powerful man of the world in Forbes list, will not give in that easily to what the US wants.
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