Secretary Paulson will have his work cut out for him also because China feels defensive right now. The product safety scandal, which featured everything from tainted toys to tainted seafood, sent an alarm bell through China’s leadership. Just yesterday, the European Commission said, in so many words, that China’s promises to take corrective action haven’t resulted in the action Europe expected. And in Panama, lawmakers believe poisoned Chinese cough syrup killed more than 100 people.

Every indication is that this will be at least a somewhat tense meeting between Mr. Paulson and his Chinese hosts. Both sides will share the tension.

A Treasury Department insider told Peace and Freedom: “This is a tough diplomatic mission. But Secretary Paulson is a big boy and well versed in the issues. He’ll be successful and he’ll sleep.”

We’ll know if that is true, in part, at the end of next week.

Related:

We documented many of the issues between the U.S. and China here:
China Planning a Surreal Facade for Summer Olympic Games: Beijing 2008

China and the U.S. are cooperating on IPRs but the going has not always proven as fruitful as these stories indicate:

China, FBI make $500M software piracy bust

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