Outspoken Pelosi staying on-subject while in China

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United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a delegation of US lawmakers on a tour of Shanghai yesterday. Pelosi is in China for an eight-day visit for climate talks.

Accompanied by four Democrats and one Republican - all members of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming - Pelosi met Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng.

On Sunday, the delegation met the head of the local legislature. The US Embassy to China has not yet released further details of Pelosi's visit.

The House Speaker, who said the trip will have a green emphasis, was in the country at the invitation of Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. She is understood to be seeking support for a global pact on reducing carbon emissions in advance of the Copenhagen Conference in December, says the Washington Post.

"It is the purpose of the trip to follow up on meetings that we have had here with representatives of China's government on the subjects of climate change and energy and how that relates to our economy," Pelosi also told reporters.

Pelosi will meet with leaders in Beijing during the visit, according to the US Embassy to China. She is also expected at the American Chamber of Commerce in China to talk about how the two countries "together account for nearly half of the global energy demand and how clean technology can help solve the problem (of climate change)", according to the Washington Post.

Though Pelosi stressed the trip has a green focus, there was speculation about whether the woman described by the Wall Street Journal as "one of the most vocal critics of China" would raise sensitive issues.

Last year, Pelosi suggested then US President George W. Bush boycott the opening of the Olympics. She has also visited the Dalai Lama and in the 1990s, was an opponent of normal trade relations with China. But Pelosi said she had no plans to raise such issues when asked on Capitol Hill on Friday.

Questions:

1. What is Nancy Pelosi said to be in China seeking support on?

2. Who invited Pelosi to China?

3. What did the Wall Street Journal describe Pelosi as?

Answers:

1. A global pact on reducing carbon emissions.

2. Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.