China Surprises U.N. With $100 Million
and Thousands of Troops for Peacekeeping
In one of the more surprising announcements during his visit to the United States, President Xi Jinping of China announced on Monday during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly that his country would offer more money and more troops to aid United Nations peacekeeping efforts.
China, he said, planned to set up a United Nations permanent peacekeeping force of 8,000 troops and would provide $100 million to the African Union to create an immediate response unit capable of responding to emergencies.
In addition to the peacekeeping pledge, Mr. Xi promised a $1 billion donation to the United Nations for a “peace and development fund.”
All this amounted to an effort to respond to calls from the United States and others in the West that as the world’s second largest economy, China needed to shoulder more responsibilities at the United Nations.
Mr. Xi appearance at the United Nations was his first since he assumed power in 2012. He seemed anxious to make a splash and show that China would rise to the occasion. Next year, China will assume the leadership of the G-20, the group of the world’s 20 major economies.
China has always been proud of its contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations. Of the four other world powers on the Security Council, China has deployed the most troops to peacekeeping operations.
Yet, the number of Chinese forces is small when compared with other big contributing countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan, given China’s large defense budget.
At a special summit on peacekeeping convened by President Obama on Monday afternoon, Mr. Xi said China would supplement the big-ticket items he had outlined earlier in the day with a helicopter squad for peacekeeping operations in Africa. China, he added, would also train 5,000 peacekeepers from other countries over the next five years.
China’s decision to commit 8,000 police officers was a significant contribution, said Bruce Jones, vice president for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and an expert on peacekeeping.
“Police is one of the most glaring gaps in the United Nations peacekeeping operations,” he said. “This is an important step in creating a dedicated reserve capacity.”
In April, as a precursor to Mr. Xi’s announcement, China dispatched an infantry battalion of 700 soldiers to South Sudan to protect civilians, United Nations employees and humanitarian workers as part of the peacekeeping force there.
China is the biggest investor in South Sudan’s oil fields, where production has slowed because of the fighting.
Together with the United States, China has tried to play a mediating role in that conflict, and Mr. Xi told the heads of state at the General Assembly that peacekeeping alone would not solve Africa’s wars.
Diplomacy and national reconciliation, he said, had to accompany the newly strengthened peacekeeping forces.
CONTINUED
The Most Memorable Moment of Xi’s America Trip
After his appearances at the United Nations and a six-day, cross-country journey, President Xi Jinping headed home on Monday.
Looking back at the trip, the most memorable moment – and maybe the most important – was watching $2.5 trillion of American corporate power pay homage to the Chinese president.
That event unfolded in a less than obvious way.
When word circulated that the chief executives of the top American technology companies would meet with Mr. Xi for a group photo on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., last week, many wondered who would turn up.
The photo was scheduled for the end of an Internet industry conference that the Chinese had choreographed for Mr. Xi’s trip to try to smooth over the deep problems many American tech companies face in the China market, including rampant theft of intellectual property.
For days, reporters had asked Microsoft, a co-host of the conference with China, for the names of the executive who would meet Mr. Xi. Microsoft demurred.
The turnout at the opening session of the conference was desultory. Perhaps, it seemed, there would just be a handful of executives with Mr. Xi.
In the afternoon, about 20 minutes before Mr. Xi was scheduled to arrive, his Internet czar, Lu Wei, entered the room where risers had been set up for the executives. Mr. Lu checked where Mr. Xi would stand, looked around the room, and left.
Suddenly, the chief executives of America’s top 10 technology companies – market value about $2.5 trillion – accompanied by the heads of more than a dozen Chinese tech companies, arrived. They lined up in three rows.
These executives are not accustomed to being beckoned – they turn down invitations to business summits, the World Economic Forum and more. But Mr. Xi beckoned, and they came.
The allure of being in Mr. Xi’s orbit was clearly too tantalizing for the executives to miss.
After they arrived, the executives cooled their heels for more than 10 minutes, waiting for Mr. Xi to finish his tour of Microsoft.
It was hard to imagine these execs waiting idly for 10 minutes anywhere else.
Mr. Xi eventually entered, smiled and shook hands with the first row, starting with Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, which is banned in China.
For the photo, Mr. Xi planted himself next to Virginia M. Rometty, the head of IBM. A podium was rolled out, and Mr. Xi spoke for about six minutes, then left.
That photo op turned out to be the most sensational moment of the trip, a 10-minute session that illustrated the raw power of the Chinese leader and the huge market he controls.
Afterward, even Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief executive, said he was impressed. “Did you feel the room shake?” he said, with a smile.
Highlights From Xi’s Speech at U.N. General Assembly
China Has Tart Response for Hillary
Clinton Over Women’s Rights
When Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized China for President Xi Jinping’s prominent role at a United Nations meeting about women on Sunday, the Chinese were ready for political combat. Mrs. Clinton posted on Twitter: “Xi hosting a meeting on women’s rights at the UN while persecuting feminists? Shameless.”
The Twitter post had particular resonance because 20 years ago when she was first lady, Mrs. Clinton addressed the United Nations summit meeting on women in Beijing and argued that women’s rights were human rights. At the time, the Chinese government was outraged at her candor.
As Mr. Xi presided over the meeting at the United Nations that commemorated the summit meeting 20 years ago, the photographs of three Chinese women who are detained for their opposition to the government were affixed to the facade of the United States Mission to the United Nations across the street from the United Nations.
The images are part of a display highlighting the persecution of 20 women in 13 countries who have been arrested for their political beliefs.
At a news briefing for Western reporters at the Waldorf Astoria, where the Chinese delegation is staying, the Chinese had a tart answer to Mrs. Clinton.
“I believe the Chinese people, particularly the women of China are in the best position to judge on the progress of women in China,” said Li Junhua, director general for international organizations and conferences at the foreign ministry. “As far as I understand, these people are detained not because of women’s rights but because of the violation of laws.”
How the Chinese News Media Is Covering Xi’s Trip
When President Xi Jinping’s plane touched down in Seattle for the start of his American trip, 22 Chinese journalists got out of the back door, all handpicked from state-run newspapers and CCTV, the main state broadcaster, for one of the most important assignments in Chinese media.
Their job for the next six days would be to report on Mr. Xi’s public appearances according to a pre-ordained script prepared by the president’s aides for China’s vast television and Internet audience.
Mr. Xi’s journey from Seattle to Washington and to New York has gone smoothly, with few surprises.
Protesters have been kept out of camera range of the president, and the chants from Free Tibet campaigners and adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual group have been too distant for microphones to detect.
Just as the White House carefully plots the course of coverage for a presidential trip overseas, so does the Chinese government. But for the most part it is difficult for the White House to dictate to the American news media how to cover events, or what video to shoot. Since the Chinese news media is government-controlled, it is easy, indeed expected, for top propaganda officials to make those calls.
This is roughly how it works, said Zhan Jiang, a professor of journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University, who used to work at CCTV.
Mr. Xi’s chief aide, Li Zhanshu, who is head of the Communist Party’s Central Committee General Office, almost certainly discussed the reporting plan for the trip in advance with CCTV. A star anchor was assigned to the trip, and possibly a CCTV president or vice-president came along, too.
Reporters for Xinhua and People’s Daily, two of the most important news outlets, were also assigned to the trip. Their reports have appeared on popular web portals like Tencent.com and Sina.com, which are not allowed to have their own journalists. The portals are instructed what headlines to use and for how long the stories should stay live, Professor Zhan said.
This was the first presidential trip since the Internet has become so powerful in China, but Professor Zhan said the government was using the web portals somewhat sparingly.
“They are not solemn and formal enough and lack the sense of ritual,” he said. “That’s why the propaganda department is still heavily relying on CCTV.”
Pomp, power and money have been the dominant themes in the Chinese reports.
Photos of Mr. Xi and President Obama talking in the doorway of Blair House, the presidential guesthouse across from the White House, were prominently played.
The message: Mr. Xi was welcomed at an especially exclusive place. The propaganda overseers did not seem to care that Mr. Obama, though standing very close to Mr. Xi, has his arms folded in a slightly exasperated posture.
When Mr. Xi met with the chief executives of America’s top tech companies at the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash., the caption on the Xinhua photograph read: the value of the companies, $2.5 trillion, is the total GDP of Britain.
The unexpected parts of the trip have been ignored by the Chinese press. The rapturous reception of Pope Francis in New York and the announced resignation of Speaker John A. Boehner swept Mr. Xi’s White House appearance off American television, and pushed him off the front page.
That the pope eclipsed Mr. Xi in America was not mentioned on CCTV. And Mr. Boehner, even in office, is a rather arcane subject for a Chinese audience.
As Xi Leads Summit at the U.N., Images of Detained
Chinese Women Stare From Across the Street
A close-up of the Chinese journalist Gao Yu shows a pensive, determined face framed by cropped hair. The face looks out from the glass lobby of the United States Mission to the United Nations, along with images of 19 other women whose images are styled like mug shots: They are all women who are or have been imprisoned for dissent.
Across the street at the United Nations headquarters on Sunday morning, President Xi Jinping of China led a summit of world leaders to mark the anniversary of a conference on women’s rights in Beijing 20 years ago.
The Chinese government planned Mr. Xi’s prominent role to show that he is committed to the empowerment of Chinese women. The ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, thinks otherwise.
Ms. Power has been the force behind the display of photographs, called #FreeThe20, and a video on Twitter shows her unveiling the 20 images by putting up the first one nearly three weeks ago. She was present when Mr. Xi addressed the summit, but unlike the scores of international leaders at the event, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France, she did not speak.
President Obama did not attend the session, a decision by the administration to signal its distaste for the idea of Mr. Xi celebrating women’s progress in China amid a sweeping crackdown on dissent, including the arrest of female activists.
Ms. Gao, 71, was arrested last year and sentenced to seven years in prison for disclosing to an overseas news media group a Communist Party document that described the party’s plans to combat political dissent. (She is banned from writing for the Chinese news media). The document was hardly a major secret: It had already been reported on government websites.
Long admired for her determined challenges to the party’s political power, Ms. Gao will be nearly 80 if she serves her full sentence.
The 20 detained women are from 13 countries, and two others are Chinese. Liu Xia, the wife of China’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, was taken into custody in 2010 and placed under house arrest after her husband, who is serving a long prison sentence, won the prize.
Friends of Ms. Liu say she suffers from severe depression and lives in what amounts to solitary confinement in her Beijing apartment, without a telephone or access to the Internet.
Also on the glass wall is Wang Yu, 44, a lawyer, and a defender of some of the most vigorous critics of the Chinese government.
Her latest case involved the newest frontier in women’s rights in China: sexual harassment. Five women were detained in March as they distributed pamphlets and signs for a public awareness campaign against sexual harassment on public transportation. Ms. Wang represented the “Five Feminists” and they were released a month later.
But in July, Ms. Wang was detained along with her husband and their 16-year-old son. The state news media called her law firm “a major criminal gang,” and when more than 150 Chinese lawyers signed a petition calling for Ms. Wang’s release, many of them were detained, too. Most have since been released.
Ms. Wang has often expressed defiance and confidence. Before her arrest, she said: “I believe that during this time of enlightenment and rapid development of the Internet any shameful attempt to smear me is doomed to fail.”
Once the Haunt of American Presidents,
Chinese Leaders Stay at Waldorf Astoria
President Xi Jinping checked into the Waldorf Astoria in New York on Friday night, the grand Art Deco 47-story tower that he can now call a home away from home.
When a Chinese conglomerate, Anbang Insurance Group, with close connections to the Chinese government bought the hotel last year from Hilton Worldwide for $1.95 billion, it was clear Mr. Xi and his entourage would stay there during the United Nations General Assembly now underway.
But what would happen to the American delegation? The Waldorf has served as the headquarters of American presidents during the United Nations fall meetings for decades. In the past, floors were cordoned off exclusively for the Americans, who would set up temporary offices, and often leave documents and computers scattered along the corridors.
Not this time. This year, President Obama will stay at the Lotte New York Palace, a few blocks away. The Secret Service was concerned about the possibility of spying by the Chinese, and decided to take the precaution of having the president and his aides sleep elsewhere, administration officials said.
The absence of the Americans has created more space for delegations from other countries, and on Saturday diplomats from India, Pakistan and several African countries, passed through the lobby.
So far, little at the hotel has changed. Hilton Worldwide, which sold the hotel to Anbang, has retained a management contract. The heavy wood paneling, the black marble trim and the free-standing antique clock in the lobby remain. Glass faced cabinets display old china and silverware from the hotel’s earlier days. The shoeshine still operates from a small alcove.
At the Peacock Alley restaurant in the lobby, Waldorf salad — a concoction of apples, walnuts and celery invented in the hotel’s kitchens – sits at the top of the menu.
Downstairs, however, Oscar’s Brasserie, an all-American restaurant, has disappeared. In its place, an elegant Chinese restaurant called La Chine, with an all pastel interior, just opened for the exclusive use of Mr. Xi’s delegation.
Qu Junyan, an Anbang executive, who was checking out the finishing touches of the new restaurant, said La Chine would open to the public next month. And New Yorkers should not worry about too many changes during planned renovations for the hotel, she said. “We are keeping all the tradition.”
A Light Lunch With the Vice President
After the formalities of a White House 21 gun salute, and a news conference with American reporters (the questions were not too difficult), Mr. Xi drove to the State Department for a lunch in the elegant Benjamin Franklin Room with about 200 guests.
Mr. Xi had been there before: in 2012 when he was still vice president but on his way to becoming president. Many of the guests were familiar faces to Mr. Xi, including Henry Kissinger and Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, who were both with him earlier this week in Seattle.
Just as in 2012, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. introduced Mr. Xi. Mr. Biden insisted relations between China and the United States were in good shape, and the disputes between the countries should not be overstated. After all, he said: “We have differences with our allies.”
Then Mr. Biden could not resist a joke involving Iowa as the first state in the presidential election cycle, a place to build political support.
Mr. Xi has traveled to Muscatine, Iowa, twice, Mr. Biden said. First as a young Communist Party official and then in 2012 as vice president.
Mr. Xi had invited Mr. Biden to join him on the 2012 trip. And in retrospect, he should have gone, Mr. Biden said. “He went and became president and I am still vice president.”
The Chinese leader, a master of Communist Party politics, appeared to understand the American variety. And in response, he smiled.
A Formal Dinner, Preceded by Off-the-Cuff
Comments From a Chinese Spokesman
While Presidents Xi Jinping and Obama were ensconced inside Blair House Thursday night for the most important encounter of their summit, the Chinese Foreign Ministry did something quite revolutionary, if not entirely illuminating.
The director general of the Information Department, Lu Kang, held an on-the-record briefing for reporters from American and foreign news organizations based in Washington. During past visits of Chinese presidents, information from the Chinese has been sparse, and spokesmen were usually elusive. Any briefings were held for the benefit of Chinese reporters, and conducted in Chinese.
Mr. Lu, whose English is fluent and colloquial, spoke before Mr. Xi and Mr. Obama had finished their meeting — billed as an informal affair held in the more relaxed atmosphere of the president’s guesthouse, across the street from the White House. (Though from the photos by the official Chinese agencies, the dinner table looked very formal with handsome silverware, fine china, a chandelier overhead, and microphones at each setting.)
The two men, accompanied by a handful of aides, would hold a free-ranging discussion over dinner like “two friends who know each other quite well,” Mr. Lu said.
A photo released by Xinhua, the state-run news agency, however, showed Mr. Obama at the entrance of Blair House with his arms folded, not the warmest posture. Mr. Xi was beaming.
Since the dinner was still underway when Mr. Lu spoke, and it is not the Chinese official style to talk candidly about disagreements, it was difficult for Mr. Lu to offer anything definitive on the important issues like cybercrime and China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Even on the White House announcement that China, the world’s largest polluter, would start a national program in 2017 to limit and put a price on greenhouse gas emissions, Mr. Lu demurred. “Climate change is an area where we did make some good progress in our joint efforts,” he said. But then added: “It’s not for me to make specific comments.”
He swatted away a question about Mr. Xi’s visit being overshadowed by the huge crowds who turned out for Pope Francis. Each leader’s visit had its “own bearing,” Mr. Lu said. Washington accorded Mr. Xi a special honor by announcing the summit meeting early, he said. “It is very rare for the United States government to announce a state visit seven months before.”
Mr. Lu dismissed the street protests in Seattle and Washington against Mr. Xi by Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China. Asked about the group’s religion, Mr. Lu said: “Falun Gong has nothing to do with religion, I can tell you,” adding, “They are liars.”
Would Mr. Lu brief reporters on the agreements announced by Mr. Xi and Mr. Obama at the White House, the most important indicators of what was achieved at a summit that had been months in the making?
Unfortunately not, he said. The schedule was too busy on the only full day of Mr. Xi’s visit to Washington. Mr. Xi and his entourage would fly to New York on Friday night immediately after the black-tie dinner at the White House. That meant the Chinese president would have spent less time in Washington than in Seattle, and that he would stay longer in New York than the nation’s capital.
The brevity seemed another signal of the stress in the relationship between the United States and China.
China’s President Has a Facebook
Page, But No One in China Can See It
The world outside China has access to a Facebook page created by the Chinese government to document President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States.
Under strict censorship laws, Facebook is banned in China, so the country’s 600 million Internet users are unable to see the slick posts written in English, and the photographs of a smiling Mr. Xi, all carefully produced by the government propaganda apparatus.
Mr. Xi’s trip is receiving wall-to-wall coverage in China — just not on Facebook — and many of those same photographs will, of course, be splashed across government news media. Among the photographs on the Facebook page are images of Mr. Xi receiving a football jersey from a high school team in Tacoma, Wash., and meeting with American business executives. A video links to Chinese television footage of Mr. Xi at the Boeing manufacturing plant outside Seattle.
The style is reminiscent of the Facebook page of an American presidential candidate.
On Wednesday, Mr. Xi met with Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Wash.
Mr. Zuckerberg spoke Mandarin to the apparent pleasure of the Chinese leader. Did Mr. Zuckerberg bluntly ask for entry into the Chinese market? Not clear. But he has shown Mr. Xi the favor of a link from his own popular Facebook page.
A Chat in Chinese with Mark Zuckerberg,
as Tech Giants Jostle for Face Time
Microsoft put a lot into the Xi Jinping’s two day visit in Seattle. At an opening banquet, Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, and Bill Gates sat on either side of Mr. Xi’s top aide, Li Zhanshu, a positioning probably more favorable for garnering influence than sitting next to Mr. Xi himself.
The company spent weeks planning Mr. Xi's campus visit for a tour of their new products, and a day long Internet forum hosted by Microsoft and the Chinese for top tech executives. And, of course, Mr. Gates and Mr. Nadella escorted Mr. Xi around the products, and the campus, another chance for influence.
Microsoft has plenty of problems in China. Its operating systems are the most popular in China, but they are also the most likely to be stolen, causing billions of dollars in losses. And Chinese government bans on procurement of Windows 8 causes further losses. Microsoft recently released Windows 10 and is awaiting government approval in China. Will the company's hospitality to Mr. Xi, and his powerful Internet czar, help clear the way for Windows 10?
Facebook is now shut out of China, with its irresistible market of 600 million internet users, creating a black spot in Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of making Facebook a global social network. Will Facebook end up being the biggest beneficiary of face time with Mr. Xi? Mr. Zuckerberg spoke with the president in Mandarin for what seemed like at least a minute when Mr. Xi greeted him before photos with tech industry leaders at Microsoft. (It was an elite crowd that included Apple’s Timothy D. Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and IBM’s Virginia Rometty)
From where reporters were standing in the back of the room, Mr. Zuckerberg’s chat was more than a cursory ‘ni hao' and we could hear the distinct sounds of Mr. Zuckerberg’s accent floating to the back of the room. But we couldn’t decipher what he was saying. Did he just ask Mr. Xi outright for entry in the market?
Mr. Zuckerberg posted a photo of his big moment talking to Mr. Xi on his Facebook page. It was the first time, he had talked to a world leader entirely in a foreign language, a “meaningful milestone,” he said. The post got more than half a million likes, including from China’s state media, Global Times and Xinhua (despite the national ban).
Who will reap the most out of close proximity, the China insider, Microsoft, or the outsider, Facebook?
Not Wanting to Compete With Pope
Francis, Xi Jinping Lingers in Seattle
President Xi Jinping of China has chosen a leisurely takeoff time of 9 a.m. from Seattle to Washington on Thursday. While he seemed to have had a good time here, his affection for the city is not the reason for lingering.
In Washington, a more popular leader, Pope Francis, addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday morning. Mr. Xi’s handlers wanted to make sure that Francis, referred to as the "rock star" pope, had left the capital before Mr. Xi landed around 5 p.m.
That does not leave the Chinese leader much time to prepare for what could be a prickly working dinner with President Obama at the White House. Aides say the discussions could be intense on some of the top issues between the two nations, like cybersecurity.
Even though Mr. Xi was eager to leave space between himself and the pope, Beijing’s relations with the Vatican under Francis are relatively warmer than in the past.
The two men were elected to their jobs in March 2013. “I sent a letter to President Xi Jinping when he was elected, three days after me,” Francis told the Catholic News Agency. “And he replied to me.”
Francis has made other overtures. And when he flew to South Korea last year, he was granted permission by the Chinese to use their airspace, a small sign of good will by Mr. Xi.
The pope has expressed a desire to visit China, but so far no word from Mr. Xi.
Since the Communist Party took power in 1949, the Vatican has had no formal relations with China. The Roman Catholic Church is divided into an “official” church known as the “patriotic association,” answerable to the Communist Party, and an underground church that swears allegiance only to the pope.
China has 12 million Catholics, far fewer people than the estimated 90 million members of the Communist Party.
Mr. Xi and his aides will most likely watch closely how the pope is received in Congress.
In the spring, when the Chinese were planning Mr. Xi’s trip to Washington, some midlevel officials asked about the possibility of Mr. Xi addressing a joint meeting of Congress, a high honor, and one that was accorded to Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan, this year.
The inquirers were politely told — given China’s position as more rival than friend — that it was not a practical proposition.
China’s Leader Tries Hard to Improve
Relations With U.S. Tech Industry
On the second day of his state visit to the United States, President Xi Jinping went all out to try to improve scratchy relations with the American tech industry and to show that the huge market in China was essential for American business.
The lure of China’s Internet market – it has 600 million users – was evident in just one photo opportunity. The titans of tech lined up in a reception room for about 20 minutes, cooling their heels as they waited for Mr. Xi to complete a tour of some of Microsoft’s new products.
When Mr. Xi arrived in the room, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, which is shut out of China, was first in line to greet him.
Mr. Zuckerberg began chatting in Mandarin with Mr. Xi, who seemed to understand him and laughed at one point. (This was not the first time Mr. Zuckerberg has used Mandarin in public; last year, he addressed students at a Beijing university in the language.)
Whether Mr. Zuckerberg’s diligence in learning Mandarin will improve his chances of persuading Mr. Xi and his Internet czar, Lu Wei, that the time has arrived for Facebook in China is a favorite parlor game in Beijing.
Mr. Xi shook hands with Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Virginia M. Rometty of IBM, Timothy D. Cook of Apple and John T. Chambers of Cisco Systems. Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, Brian M. Krzanich of Intel, Steven Mollenkopf of Qualcomm and Satya Nadella of Microsoft were also present.
Some Chinese tech executives – including Jack Ma, head of Alibaba, and Liu Qiangdong of JD.com – were also among the guests.
The Americans were there only for the photo with Mr. Xi; none of them made formal comments.
Mr. Xi was not expected to speak to the group either.
But a podium suddenly appeared, Mr. Xi’s chief of protocol made sure it was in order, and Mr. Xi addressed the group about the importance of the Internet.
The Internet can expand in China, Mr. Xi said, but this must happen in line with “national realities.”
Or, in more direct English, censorship.
Xi Jinping to Meet With Elite Business Leaders
A select group of 30 handpicked American and Chinese business executives meet with President Xi Jinping at his hotel in Seattle Wednesday morning for a fairly intimate round table discussion organized by the Paulson Institute.
The American participants include a stellar cast of chief executives, including: Mary T. Barra of General Motors, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, Timothy D. Cook of Apple, Robert A. Iger of the Walt Disney Company and Indra K. Nooyi of PepsiCo.
On the Chinese side: Jack Ma of Alibaba, Yang Yuanqing of Lenovo, Zhang Yaqin of Baidu and Tian Guoli of Bank of China.
The Americans have different stories to tell. Mr. Cook of Apple can brag about sales of iPhones in China now exceeding those in the United States. In contrast, Ms. Barra of G.M. is not happy about the slide in China’s car market and the 4.8 percent decline in sales in August compared to the same period a year earlier.
Three of the Americans – Mr. Iger representing entertainment; Virginia M. Rometty, chief executive of IBM, from tech; and Andrew N. Liveris of the Dow Chemical Company – have been asked to address Mr. Xi.
Disney is on a definite upswing in China. After a 20-year courtship of the government, the company opened its first Disney Store in May in the Pudong district of Shanghai, and its first theme park, a $5.5 billion Disneyland, is scheduled to open in Shanghai next spring.
Although Disney is not as affected by the censorship that keeps a lot of American movies out of China, an open question is whether Mr. Iger will suggest to Mr. Xi that the restrictions be lifted.
Like all movie companies, Disney would like the economics on box office grosses changed. Hollywood gets a 25 percent cut on most movies that open in China, compared to 50 percent elsewhere.
A big question is how much these corporate leaders will push Mr. Xi to make doing business in China more to their liking.
China’s Leader Pledges to Work
With U.S. on Fighting Cybercrimes
President Xi Jinping of China pledged in a speech in Seattle on Tuesday evening to work with the United States on fighting cybercrimes, saying that the Chinese government was a staunch defender of cybersecurity.
“The Chinese government will not in whatever form engage in commercial theft, and hacking against government networks are crimes that must be punished in accordance with the law and relevant international treaties,” Mr. Xi said.
On his first day of a state visit to the United States, Mr. Xi told an audience of American and Chinese business leaders: “China is ready to set up a high-level joint dialogue mechanism with the United States on fighting cybercrimes.”
Mr. Xi was seeking to impress the business audience, with many of those present from the tech industry, but how far his words would be believed in Washington, and in the business community, was not clear.
President Obama's senior national security advisers told reporters in Washington in an on-the-record briefing Tuesday that there would be “very robust” discussions with Mr. Xi on cybersecurity and economic issues.
On a lighter note, Mr. Xi drew applause from the audience when he showed off his knowledge of American culture. His sweeping campaign against corrupt officials in the Communist Party was not a purge, he said.
“In this case, there is no House of Cards,” he said, to laughs from the more than 600 people in the ballroom at the Westin Hotel in Seattle.
There were murmurs of appreciation about his reading of American classics by Thomas Paine, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and Jack London.
He particularly liked Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and The Sea,” and recalled tracking down a bar in Cuba where Hemingway drank and ordering a mojito.
A longtime China hand, Stephen Orlins, the president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, a sponsor of the dinner, said Mr. Xi won points for projecting his personal tastes.
“His fondness for Hemingway and going to the bar in Cuba were successful attempts to tell us who he is and what makes him tick,” Mr. Orlins said.
“At present, all economies are facing difficulties, and our economy is also under downward pressure, but this is only a problem in the course of progress. We will take coordinated steps to achieve stable growth.”
President Xi Jinping during a speech in Seattle
President Xi Jinping of China, during a speech in Seattle on Tuesday.
President Xi Jinping of China Arrives in Seattle
President Xi Jinping of China arrived outside Seattle on Tuesday for his first state visit to the United States. Mr. Xi will meet American business executives, including the leaders of Microsoft and Boeing, while in Seattle before heading to Washington, D.C., where he will be received at the White House with a 21-gun salute and a state dinner.
Mr. Xi traveled on an Air China Boeing 747-400, and landed at Paine Field, adjacent to a Boeing manufacturing base, 30 miles from Seattle. Mr. Xi will visit Boeing on Wednesday. In several years, Boeing expects China to outstrip the United States as its largest customer.
A retinue of Washington state officials led by Gov. Jay Inslee welcomed Mr. Xi and his wife on a sunny clear morning with the first bite of fall weather.
In an unusual gesture, Wang Xining, a diplomat in the press section of the Foreign Ministry, came over to reporters and introduced himself. He had memorized the president’s page-long arrival message, and recited it to us in English.
Another press officer handed out copies of the statement, another unusual move by the Foreign Ministry whose modus operandi is generally guarded.
Mr. Xi extended “sincere greetings and best wishes” to the people of the United States from the “1.3 billion-plus Chinese people.” The language was familiar to those who follow Mr. Xi’s take on United States-China relations.
He repeated his desire to “build a new model of major-country relationship of no-conflict, no-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.”
And then Mr. Wang and his colleague jumped on the press bus with the rest of us for the ride out of the airport.
An earlier version of this post misspelled the name of the governor of Washington. He is Gov. Jay Inslee, not Islee.
In Seattle, Xi Aims to Show China Is Still Booming
It was easy for Xi Jinping’s handlers to choose Seattle as the first stop on his journey to America. Mr. Xi wants to demonstrate that China Inc. is still booming despite the slowdown. He probably figures he will get fewer questions in Seattle about his economic decisions, which are raising concerns in American boardrooms, than in the nation's capital, where he arrives on Thursday.
Washington State, the manufacturing base for Boeing, exports more to China than to any other state, and Cosco, the Chinese shipping giant, keeps the Port of Tacoma bustling.
After President Richard M. Nixon landed in Beijing aboard a Boeing 707 in 1972, China became a stellar customer. Now, Boeing is looking to compete for a big share of the expected trillion-dollar market for passenger jets — that’s more than 6,000 new planes for China — in the next 20 years.
Starbucks, another signature Seattle company, has 1,800 stores in China and expects to double that number in the next four years. The company runs into few of the Chinese government’s sensitivities on national security, or the bias toward indigenous firms that hampers the Chinese operations of Seattle's local tech giants, Microsoft and Amazon.
Howard Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks, will be at the head table with Mr. Xi at a banquet for 650 Chinese and American business heavyweights Tuesday night.
Perhaps he will regale Mr. Xi’s entourage with stories about Starbucks's distinctive coffee shops in China. They are roomy, like salons that serve as quiet sanctuaries away from the crowds. People nurse their drinks, chat and work for hours on their computers. There is not much of a grab-and-go culture in China yet.
Mr. Xi won’t sample Starbucks products in Seattle, even at the Roastery, the company’s downtown temple to expensive coffees. Even though the Seattle police are being exceedingly obliging — shutting down parts of the city to traffic for the entire two days Mr. Xi is in town — a visit to the Roastery would be a security nightmare for Chinese officials anxious about protests.
Instead, he will make a sentimental journey to a high school he visited more than 20 years ago as a rising Communist Party official. That will provide the warm photo for the trip: Mr. Xi, the empathetic father figure rather than the nationalistic president.
When Xi’s Father Visited, He Met
Mickey Mouse and Wore a Lei
In an era when it was rare for Chinese officials to visit the United States, Xi Jinping's father, a famous army general under Mao Zedong, spent three weeks touring American cities and small towns in 1980.
The trip was organized by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the group that is one of the sponsors of the 650-person dinner where Mr. Xi will speak on Tuesday in Seattle.
Mr. Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, then governor of Guangdong province and an advocate of opening China’s economy, was “warm, open and flexible,” said Jan Berris, vice president of the committee, who traveled with him.
He was game enough to shake the hand of Mickey Mouse at Disneyland and to wear a lei at a Polynesian village in Hawaii.
In 1985, a young Xi Jinping, then a mere county official, visited Muscatine, Iowa, to learn about American agriculture. Few imagined then that the young guy with longish hair and a friendly demeanor would return as the most powerful Chinese leader in generations.
President Xi’s Big Seattle Dinner
to Be Held on Eve of Yom Kippur
A dinner for business executives who are paying up to $30,000 a table to listen to China's president, Xi Jinping, deliver a speech in Seattle falls on the eve of Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the Jewish year.
In the early planning of Mr. Xi's trip to the United States, the Chinese displayed little awareness that many Jewish business leaders would find it difficult to attend. But gradually, they began to understand, American organizers said.
The date for the speech was not changed. Instead, a compromise was reached.
Xi has agreed to start speaking at 5:56 p.m. on Tuesday and to finish only 20 minutes later, at 6:16 p.m. This will give Jewish members of the audience time to finish eating and then attend services that begin at sundown, at 7:07 p.m. The services will be conducted by a rabbi in a room next to the ballroom of the Westin Hotel.
Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state who has been a familiar face during visits of Chinese leaders to the United States, will introduce Mr. Xi.
But not everyone invited has accepted. Two big supporters of China in the business world, Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, and Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chief executive of the American International Group, will not be there. Their expected absence has caused a stir in the business community.
What Xi Jinping’s Trip Says
About U.S.-China Relations Today
Many world leaders make Washington their first stop on a state visit to the United States. Not Xi Jinping.
The Chinese selected Seattle for the first two days of the President Xi's trip and have designed an action-packed itinerary to highlight that China Inc. — despite a slowing economy — remains a powerful partner with corporate America.
Mr. Xi will then fly to Washington to meet President Obama at the White House on Sept. 24. His handlers deliberately timed his arrival for the late afternoon, well after Pope Francis, who addresses a joint session of Congress that morning, will have left town.
The Chinese did not want competition with the popular pope. “He’s a rock star,” a Chinese diplomat said of the pontiff.
The first order of business in Washington is a working dinner where Mr. Xi and Mr. Obama will discuss the big issues that bedevil the United State-China relationship: cybertheft, territorial claims in the South China Sea and a new national security law. There are low expectations for any breakthroughs.
The pomp of a 21-gun salute welcoming ceremony on the White House lawn is of uppermost importance for Mr. Xi, who wants his home constituency to see him received by Americans as an important statesman. A state dinner at the White House for Mr. Xi, and his wife, Peng Liyuan, a former opera singer, will add grandeur.
During his visit to New York, Mr. Xi is displacing Mr. Obama from the Waldorf Astoria, traditionally the place where American presidents and hundreds of American diplomats have stayed during the United Nations General Assembly meetings.
A highly connected Chinese company, the Anbang Insurance Group, bought the Waldorf last year. Mr. Xi is scheduled to stay there, just as Chinese leaders have done during previous state visits. But Mr. Obama will bunk elsewhere (the Lotte New York Palace).
Quietly, the Obama administration said Chinese ownership of the Waldorf, which is scheduled for renovations, raised the possibility of espionage against Mr. Obama and his entourage.
The Waldorf matter sums up the state of the two nations' relations in 2015: The two leaders do not trust each other enough to stay under the same roof.
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