His relative status in the leadership is strengthened when he focuses on foreign policy, where he is clearly the No. 1.

If Boeing and Microsoft and others who are seen as deeply engaged and committed to the relationship speak frankly about the stress, that is of real value.

The political, business and what I might call the establishment community here is very atypical of the rest of the country.

This Washington is an alternative vision of what the US-China relationship can be. Here we have a state establishment that is almost 100 percent behind encouraging engagement, and a perception that things are moving well on both sides.

There's pride in the International District about China's rise, and lots of people will be quite happy that he's coming.

Vision, values and strategy are unique opportunities for a leader to create a common purpose and align his organization