Obama to visit China

BEIJING – U.S. President Barack Obama plans to make his first visit to China in mid-November, U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman announced Saturday during his first meeting in Beijing with journalists.

“After the president has been able to sit down with many of the good leaders here in China, I am hopeful … the U.S.-China relationship will be stronger than ever before,” Huntsman said.

Although Obama’s trip has been widely rumored, it had not been announcedofficially by the White House or by China. The president already had planned to attend the Nov. 14-15 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore.

Huntsman said that the global economy, energy and climate change, as well North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, would be likely topics at the meetings.

Huntsman, who arrived in China the night before, chatted with journalists in the front yard of the diplomatic residence in downtown Beijing.

Huntsman, former governor of Utah, spoke to journalists in English and Chinese, which he learned as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan.