On November 19, 2005, US President George W. Bush, at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, arrived at Beijing by a special plane, kicking off visit to China.
At 18:40 p.m., President Bush's special plane Air Force One landed at the south parking apron of Capital Airport. First Lady Laura Bush, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Stephen Hadley arrived by the same plane.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Chinese ambassador to the US Zhou Wenzhong and US ambassador to China Clark T. Randt received President Bush at the airport. Two Chinese young women presented flower to Bush and his wife.
It is the first visit of Bush during his second term of presidency. As the US President, Bush once attended the ninth Informal APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Shanghai in October 2001 and paid a two-day working visit to China in February 2002.
It is said that for this visit President Bush has a busy schedule. The entire visit will last about 40 hours and most activities will be held on November 20. During his visit he will hold talks with President Hu Jintao and meet with Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council. Both sides will exchange in-depth opinions on a wide range of issues.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told the reporters on November 17 that China hopes to strengthen common consensus, enhance mutual trust, expand exchanges and cooperation and comprehensively push forward China-US constructive and cooperative relations in the 21st century through President Bush's visit to China.
Before leaving Washington, Bush told reporters that the US and China have sound cooperation and in the future can cooperate in such areas as promoting the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations, prevention and control of bird flu, anti-terrorism and efficient use of energy. He was expecting to visit China.
Bush said that on the one hand the bilateral trade between the US and China keeps moving forward and bilateral dialogue and cooperation are being strengthened and on the other hand there remains much to be done in terms of intellectual property protection, RMB exchange rate and market access. Therefore, "the bilateral relations are important yet complicated".
China is the third stop of President Bush's four-country tour in Asia. Earlier he visited Japan, South Korea and attended the thirteenth Informal APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Busan, South Korea. After China he will pay a visit to Mongolia.