Under blue skies, Beijing rolls out a red carpet for Obama and Putin

Beijing Welcome to fairytale Beijing.

The sky is blue, the air is clean, the traffic flows. And all because China is hosting the likes of Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin at a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Asias premier trade forum.

President Xi Jinping, chairing a major international meeting for the first time, has spared no effort to impress his guests, including draconian steps to temporarily curb the capitals notorious pollution.

The campaign goes well beyond Chinas long tradition of hospitality. Never has so much time, energy, money, and propaganda been expended on an APEC summit, says Zhang Yunling, a former trade policy adviser to the Chinese government.

Nor is it wasted, in the eyes of the authorities. They are using this meeting to build Chinas image as the leader of Asia, says Zhang Lifan, a historian and independent commentator. This is an opportunity to present their status.

Most APEC host nations organize the annual meetings in existing hotels and conference facilities. China has reportedly spent $6 billion on a purpose-built lakeside campus 40 miles outside Beijing and a new elevated expressway leading to the 595-room hotel, conference hall, and press center.

The government has chased away air pollution in equally dramatic fashion. Only half of Beijings cars will be allowed on the roads each day between Nov. 3and Nov. 12; more than 1,000 heavy industrial plants within a 120-mile radius of Beijing have been ordered to close; all construction sites have been suspended; and residents of Tianjin, a port city 90 miles east of Beijing, will not get any central heating until APEC is over.

All of Beijings schools and universities have been shut down for the week of the APEC summit, and all government employees have been given a mini-holiday, so as to reduce congestion in the capital. But that means no passports will be issued, no weddings registered, no taxes paid, in fact no official business done at all. And the partial car ban means that public transport is even more packed than normal.

The police and other security forces, though, are working overtime. Fearing a possible terrorist attack by separatists from the predominantly Muslim province of Xinjiang, the government has stepped up roadblocks and security checks around the capital.

Trying to ensure a trouble-free event in the most pleasant circumstances possible is natural enough in any host government. And the tradition of caring about face, wanting to show our best side, is part of Chinese culture, says Zhang Lifan.

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Under blue skies, Beijing rolls out a red carpet for Obama and Putin