Hu’s visit to Russia, which will start Sunday, will be his second since he assumed office in 2003. He has yet to visit the United States as president. This time he will push for “further development of the Chinese-Russian strategic partnership,” said Li Hui, an assistant Chinese foreign minister, at a press briefing about the visit. Equally, Putin’s tough politics and praise for the late dictator Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union have won plaudits from Chinese officials, who, like Putin, see the collapse of the Soviet Union as a tragedy.
See also “Expert says Hu Jintao’s Moscow tour significant” from Xinhua.
