at the peterson institute for international economics, analyst nicholas lardy says steps like that are encouraging signs that china will use it's clout carefully. >> in some ways, they are playing by the rules. for example, they accepted the w.t.o. settlement process. when they lose cases in the w.t.o, they come into compliance. and in certain respects, a stronger, more buoyant china is in our interests. >> reporter: as hu heads into his meetings with president obama, eswar prasad argues the u.s. finds itself on the defensive, another sign of china's growing economic stature. >> it's very difficult for the us to go in and tell china to change its currency policy if there is a feeling that the u.s. is doing whatever is in its own interests-- say, in terms of very lose and expansionary monetary policy without caring about the rest if the world-- and then going and telling china what to do. >> reporter: even so, u.s. officials point out china buys $100 billion a year in u.s. exports, and that figure is growing 15% a year. no other country in the world can provide u.s. companies and worker

china analyst nicholas lardy says that's both an opportunity and a threat for aviation suppliers like g.e. >> the calculation of these companies is that, yes, china may be able to replicate this technology, eventually produce its own airplane engines, its own avionics. but by the time they're able to master these technologies, the frontier will have moved on. >> reporter: by the middle of this decade, china hopes to turn the c919 regional jet into a viable airplane. but to get there, it needs foreign companies to provide chinese firms with engine and software technology. in public, u.s. and european c.e.o.s are signing high-profile deals to bring that technology to chinese joint ventures. but in reality, aviation analyst richard aboulafia says, u.s. and european suppliers are doing everything they can to protect their most important secrets. >> the real problem with working with china on aerospace is that you know that you have no intellectual property rights. which means, of course, that you tend to show up with stuff that's maybe 95% of the best, but not quite. >> reporter: aboulafi