Foreign Pool - U.S. President Obama's meeting with China Vice President Xi

White House Press Office	Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Reply-To: White House Press Office To: Ching-Yi Chang
From: Ching-Yi Chang Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 3:39 PM To: Allen, Elizabeth M.; Dudley, Amy Subject: Foreign Pool - U.S. President Obama's meeting with China Vice President Xi President Obama's meeting with China's Vice President Xi's meeting is a significant one. As told previously by the White House official, this is the first meeting between them, and also, as told by other White House correspondents, the President rarely has a pool spray at the top of the meeting between him and a vice or deputy foreign leader. And this is a longer than usual pool spray, which lasted for almost 14 minutes. (including the time for translation) Mr. Obama gave a remark first, and then following by Mr. Xi's remark. Both wear light blue ties, and sat somewhat casually. Both looked at each other when the counterpart spoke, while when Mr. Xi gave remark he often looked at Mr. Obama directly, when Mr. Obama talked, he usually look at the poolers. Mr. Obama's tone was pretty in line as what he said to Chinese leaders: the U.S. "welcomes China's peaceful rise," and again, he wants China to play by the rules, "we want to work with China to make sure that everybody is working by the same rules of the road when it comes to the world economic system." Mr. Obama did directly mentioned about China's human rights issue to Mr. Xi, while only a few words: "we will continue to emphasize what we believe is the importance of recognizing the aspirations and rights of all people. "  At that time, Mr. Xi didn't respond to that. (but he did mention about the human rights issue in China during the lunch in the Department of State) As mentioned, although as an heir apparent, Mr. Xi's current position is the Vice President in China. But unlike Vice President Biden, Mr. Xi's ranking in Chinese political system right now is about No.4 to No.6. So the very first remark he made is that, "first of all, I'd like to convey the sincere greetings from President Hu Jintao, the National People's Congress Chairman Wu Banguo, and Premier Wen Jaibao." It shows his carefulness.  He mentioned about the meeting between him and Mr. Biden, and he didn't reveal much, "I've had a set of large and small talks with Vice President Biden.  He and I had an extensive, candid, and in-depth exchange of views on the bilateral relationship and international and regional issues of shared interest." Still, he said, "the Vice President and I reached some new consensus." A little correction to Mr. Obama's address. Since Mr. Xi will leave D.C. for Iowa tomorrow afternoon, so Mr. Obama wished he enjoys his trip, and said, "I know you'll be visiting Iowa, where you visited many years ago when you were 'governor'. " In reality, while Mr. Xi visited Iowa in 1985, he was a local party official of Hebei Province, as well as the director of the Feed Association of Shi jiazhaung prefecture. Ching-Yi Chang White House Correspondent Hong Kong Phoenix Satellite TV