Society

From the ads on Times Square to the 21-gun salute on the White House lawn, everything about President Hu Jintao's visit has been designed to show that China has arrived as a major world power, and its leader deserves to be treated as an equal.

China's state-controlled newspapers and television channels were dominated Thursday by images of Mr. Hu and President Barack Obama, side by side. The official Xinhua news agency characterized China and the U.S. as "two heavyweight players on the international stage [that] have seen their national interests increasingly interwoven." China Daily added: "The rest of the world has been paying close attention to every word and gesture—given the importance of the two countries to the global economic and political landscape."

Even as many Americans appear convinced that China is about to overtake the U.S. economically or militarily, state media outlets called for deeper relations based on mutual respect. The bi-weekly World News Journal said the U.S. should adjust its mentality of "deep suspicion about China." Other publications called for the end of a "zero-sum game" mentality.

For Chinese citizens following President Hu Jintao's visit to the U.S., the message from Communist Party propaganda czars is loud and clear: The world's dominant power is finally treating China as an equal, and Mr. Hu, who steps down as party chief next year, is the man to thank.

State-controlled media have gone into overdrive to portray the visit as a resounding success and the start of a new era of bilateral relations, based on "mutual respect and mutual benefit," while Internet censors have scrubbed clean chat rooms and blogs of almost all comments that might suggest otherwise.

One forum set up on 163.com—one of China's leading news portals—to discuss Mr. Hu's visit showed 248,555 participants as of Sunday evening, but only 19,936 comments were visible, suggesting tens of thousands had been deleted. The comments that remained were overwhelmingly positive.

The only online commentary allowed to stray from the official party line was widespread praise from nationalist bloggers for Lang Lang, the China-born pianist who played a tune from a famous anti-U.S. Chinese film about the Korean War during the White House state banquet.

On a day full of carefully choreographed events to announce incremental progress on thorny political and economic issues in the U.S.-China relationship, one big diplomatic issue has been put to rest: the pandas can stay at the National Zoo.

Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have been at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., for 10 years. And with today’s agreement, they can stay for another five, Secretary-General of the China Wildlife Conservation Association Zang Chunlin announced.

The current agreement officially expired in December, but an extension of the pair’s stay was expected. There is an official signing ceremony of the extended research agreement scheduled for Thursday morning at the National Zoo.

Chinese pandas and their offspring always belong to China and must be returned eventually. Mei Xiang and Tian TIan have a son, Tai Shan, who was returned to China last year.

Pandas have been an important symbol in U.S.-China relations since Chairman Mao Zedong gave President Richard Nixon two pandas to celebrate his visit to China in 1972.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, seeking a steadier footing for the often-troubled U.S.-China relationship, played up the two nations' common interests—and soft-pedaled or ignored longstanding issues that divide them.

Their uneasy balance—neither friend nor foe—is emerging as the operating principle behind the globe's most critical bilateral relationship. In a one-hour press conference in the White House's East Room, the two leaders sought to demonstrate they can live with areas of tension, even if they can't cure them, including China's currency policy, its human-rights record and the nuclear ambitions of North Korea.

In private sessions, senior administration officials said, the two leaders addressed some of the countries' friction points: They spent about half their time discussing economic issues, and the rest on Iran, North Korea, human rights and other areas, aides said. President Obama's aides said that he pressed Mr. Hu more gently than Congressional critics did on letting China's currency rise, noting it has gradually risen 3.5%, and more if inflation is accounted for. "But he said that China needs to do more, needs to move faster," said a senior aide.