In a visit expected to be marked by trade tensions, disagreements over Tibet and disputes over the value of the Chinese currency, one of the earliest diplomatic tussles involved how to spell -- and therefore pronounce -- the name of the 44th American president in Mandarin Chinese.
And the wrangling went all the way to the White House, or, as the Chinese have always called it, the "Bai Gong," meaning "White Palace." But the Obama administration was having none of that, reminding their Chinese hosts that the United States has no palaces, and insisting on using in official statements the term "Bai Wu," literally "White House."
"The Embassy is working to standardize the translation of common vocabulary in Chinese," said U.S. embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson in an e-mail, when asked whether President Aobama or President Oubama was coming to China.
"Ou-bama," she said, "conforms to the actual pronunciation of the name and is our preferred Chinese appellation." And she added, "By the same token, "Bai Wu" (which means "White House") is more accurate than "Bai Gong" (White Palace)."
But President Oubama living in the Bai Wu also more closely conforms to how the names are commonly rendered in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which may explain why, so far at least, official Chinese media, and the Chinese foreign ministry, continue to use the old familiar forms.
The president has been referred to here as "Aobama" since he first appeared on the national scene. And change, as he himself often says, is hard.
One foreign ministry official Chinese translator even appeared to be mocking the American translation efforts. He said he preferred "Aobama," because the Chinese character for Ao is used also for Australia and as part of Macao, and means "profound and deep." By contrast, "Ou" is the Chinese character used for Europe.
The official agreed that the pronunciation of "Oubama" may indeed be closer to the American pronunciation of the 44th president's name. But he said it sounded strange to the ear, reminding him slightly of the Japanese term "Obaasan," which is a rather unkind way of referring to an old lady ("Obaasan," while Japanese, is widely understood by Chinese on Taiwan and in Hong Kong).
What the translator did not mention, however, is that the "Ao" character has a lot of other less complimentary meaning -- which may be why the Chinese government prefers to use it for Obama. "Ao" can also mean "difficult to understand," "abstruse" and "obscure."
The translator also recalled that the White House versus White Palace dispute was an old one between the embassy and the foreign ministry here. He said the ministry had no plans to change for the moment, and would probably take its cue from Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.
So for the moment, Chinese journalists covering the visit are left with dueling Chinese and American translations of both the American president's name, and the name of the place where he lives and works.
"I think any change will take time to work its way through," Stevenson said in the e-mail, recalling how long it took for "Peking" to become "Beijing." She added: "The U.S. government, however, has adapted this new vocabulary."
US President Barack Obama on Monday arrived in Beijing from Shanghai, for the second leg of his maiden state visit to China.
Obama arrived in China on Sunday on a three-day mission aimed at convincing Beijing that Washington is its partner, not its rival.
In a town hall speech in Shanghai, the US leader pushed for an unshackled Internet and expanded political freedoms as he sought to get around China's media curbs.
He also said the United States and China, two economically interlocked rivals, need not be adversaries, appealing to millions of Chinese web surfers on the first day of his first visit to what he termed "a majestic country". Obama's speech
"I have always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I am a big supporter of non-censorship," Obama said, before flying to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
"I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger a society becomes," said Obama in a nation where communist authorities have for months blocked Internet sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
Obama's decision to tap the power of the web was highly symbolic: the grassroots movement he built to win the White House in 2008 was largely built on Internet freedoms restricted by the "Great Firewall of China".
The president fielded questions from his audience of university students as well as Internet users, speaking on subjects ranging from "universal rights" and Taiwan to Chinese NBA basketball star Yao Ming.
Audience members, while showing great respect for Obama, rarely asked questions deviating from the official Chinese government line, and the forum appeared tightly controlled by the authorities.
The most interesting question -- on Internet freedoms -- came via email, and was read out to Obama by the US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman.
Having been accused of downplaying rights concerns to appease China, Obama called for the observance of "universal rights" of political expression, religious freedom and free information everywhere.
"They should be available to all people, including ethnic and religious minorities, whether they are in the United States, China, or any nation," Obama said, though he noted that his own country was not perfect.
But the US leader did not specifically mention sensitive issues like China's rule over Tibet, after declining to meet exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in the United States before making his high-profile inaugural visit to Beijing.
"The notion that we must be adversaries is not predestined," Obama said, walking a fine line between standing up for US interests on trade and human rights and seeking Chinese backing on issues such as Iran and North Korea.
He leavened his call for expanded freedoms with praise for China as a "majestic country", marvelling at the "soaring skyscrapers" of Shanghai and the relics of China's "distant past" he hoped to see in Beijing.
The White House streamed the event on its website, which jammed several times but was visible on local servers. A live transcript was posted on the website of state news agency Xinhua, which appeared faithful to Obama's answers in English.
The broadcast on local Shanghai television was delayed by several seconds, but Obama's answers were audible under the simultaneous translation in Chinese.
China's communist authorities were taking no chances on security, with roads leading to the venue at Shanghai's imposing Science and Technology Museum closed to normal traffic and the area around the venue deserted. Uniformed security agents were deployed en masse.
The authorities also apparently kept close control on the students allowed to attend the meeting, selected by professors at Shanghai-area universities.
Obama later boarded Air Force One and flew to Beijing, where he was due to attend a private dinner with Hu.
After a day of talks and some sight-seeing, Obama will be honoured with the lavish pageantry of a state dinner.
Obama came to China hoping to convince its leaders that Washington was not trying to rein in its fast growth and growing diplomatic weight.
"The United States does not seek to contain China, nor does a deeper relationship with China mean a weakening of our bilateral alliances," Obama said in a speech in Tokyo on Saturday.
"On the contrary, the rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations."
But tough talk on the economy was looming.
A Chinese commerce ministry spokesman on Monday accused the United States of increasing protectionism and said American calls to let the yuan rise were "unfair".
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