IT is a deeply ingrained belief in China that a young novice starting out in the real world must earn a degree, or at least spend some time in the West. "Gilding," or "du-jin" as it's called in Chinese, boosts the person's credentials and chances of success. Nowhere is this belief more apparent than in politics. For a new leader, strutting on the White House lawn and shaking hands with the president of the United States validates his status as a true statesman and confirms his country's rising power.

Ten years ago, China's current president, Hu Jintao, made the rounds in Washington before taking the top spot. His meeting with President George W. Bush was widely seen in China as his official debut on the world stage.

The tradition continues on Tuesday as Vice President Xi Jinping arrives in Washington. Mr. Xi is slated to become general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party later this year and China's president in early 2013.

The public sees Mr. Xi as a man of the people. When Mr. Xi was 9, his father, Xi Zhongxun, who had fought in the Communist revolution, was purged from the party by Mao. The father was detained and imprisoned and spent 16 years in a labor camp, plunging the family into poverty. During the Cultural Revolution, a 15-year-old Mr. Xi was banished to a poverty-stricken village in northern China where, for seven years, he labored with peasants, eating corn chaff bread and sleeping in a flea-infested
bed.

His past sufferings will most likely make him an advocate of ordinary people's interests. Indeed, the public expects that Mr. Xi will follow the example of his father, who later became instrumental in initiating China's economic reforms, backed many of his progressive contemporaries and reportedly disagreed with the violent suppression of student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Mr. Xi will take the helm amid increasing disillusionment with Mr. Hu, a cautious technocrat who lacked the talent and political will to steer the country in a new direction. Even though China has used market reforms to transform itself into an economic powerhouse, the government lives in constant fear of unrest.

David Fuller's view My guess is that this Opinion column would not have appeared in the NYT and IHT during Mr Xi Jinping's official visit to the US without central government approval in China. If so, it is a public relations attempt to portray China's next leader as a progressive reformer and man of the people.

With scheduled changes at the top of China's ruling hierarchy and a presidential election in the USA this year, both countries have plenty to gain by reining in any inflammatory rhetoric and finding ways to work in their mutual interests. These are challenging times and the world could use some enlightened stability and economic growth from its leading countries and biggest economies.