Chinese media send unified message highlighting leader’s ‘warm welcome’ in US in Xi-Biden summit coverage

Reports play up personal interactions between President Xi Jinping and American counterpart Joe Biden, as well as remarks on Taiwan and bilateral ties
State news outlets underscore Beijing’s efforts to improve strained US-China relations but ignore protests near Apec summit in San Francisco

US-China relations

Jane Caiin Beijing

Published: 7:01pm, 16 Nov 2023

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In its coverage of heavyweight talks between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden, Chinese media highlighted the hospitality and respect the American side showed towards Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades.

When Xi arrived at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday for a summit with Biden, their first face-to-face talks in a year, he was “warmly welcomed” by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, California Governor Gavin Newsom and other American officials, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed around a dozen US officials quietly waiting before Xi exited an Air China plane and waved from the steps.

Greeted by Newsom and other representatives, Xi recalled his previous trip to San Francisco 38 years ago, when he was party chief of Zhengding county in the northern province of Hebei.

Xi Jinping poses in front of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in 1985, when he was Communist Party chief of Zhengding county in northern China’s Hebei province. Photo: Xinhua

Biden later played up that personal detail. After a four-hour talk with the Chinese leader and his delegation, a beaming Biden held up his phone to display a photo of Xi in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.

“Do you know this man?” Biden reportedly asked Xi, according to Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who shared the interaction on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

“Oh yes,” Xi responded with a smile. “This was 38 years ago.”

The episode was widely picked up by Chinese media, as was the leaders’ stroll around the Filoli estate, a country house with well-manicured gardens about 48km (30 miles) south of San Francisco.

Chinese media also highlighted their warm farewell, when Xi opened the door of a Hongqi limousine and Biden admired the Chinese-made luxury vehicle, comparing it to his own presidential Cadillac.

In a 2,400-word report on the talks, Xinhua said Xi was “enthusiastically” greeted by Biden, who accompanied the Chinese leader to the car to bid him farewell. The report said the “positive, comprehensive and constructive” summit would pave the way for the development and improvement of Sino-American relations.

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Chinese news outlets only carried state media reports on the Xi-Biden talks, unifying their message to the Chinese public that Beijing was working to improve strained bilateral ties.

Mainland Chinese media did not cover the protests over human rights issues that have erupted in San Francisco ahead of this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) conference. They did report that overseas Chinese waved China’s flag and chanted its national anthem in the streets as they welcomed Xi to the American city.

State media also highlighted Xi’s remarks to Biden on bilateral relations, China’s modernisation and Taiwan, as well as his criticism of Washington’s containment measures. The Chinese leader’s comments were widely carried in Chinese media and social media.

Biden, Xi meet for first time in a year, agree to new talks

On the social media platform Weibo, the most searched hashtags on Thursday included “Biden reaffirms no support for Taiwan independence”, “China will reunify Taiwan with the mainland ultimately”, “the US should not plan to suppress and contain China”, “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed”, and “the two leaders bid farewell”.

The state media reports were reposted by various government departments and party organs, including police departments and courts, the Communist Youth League and local governments.

On the country’s heavily censored social media platforms, only a small portion of the tens of thousands of comments were visible to users, with many posts calling for “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and cooperation and win-win”.