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11/25/2024 12:07:50 am

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Xi Jinping Lectures Obama After APEC Summit

Xi and Obama

(Photo : Reuters) Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at a lunch banquet with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing November 12, 2014.

United States President Barack Obama and China's President Xi Jinping have attended a news conference at the Great Hall Of The People located in Beijing after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit as the two talked about the same issues despite cooperating over climate change.

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The two presidents attended the conference on Wednesday and according to reports, Xi did not want to mirror what happened during the 2009 visit of Obama as his predecessor, Hu Jintao, posed a scripted encounter when the U.S. chief first visited the country as the president.

The conference focused on the lecture of Xi, disregarding the importance of the new relationship between his country and Obama's, and pressed that foreign governments should not meddle in the pro-democracy movement still ongoing in Hong Kong and added that foreign journalists should abide by the laws of China.

As for the issues in Hong Kong, Obama insisted that they have nothing to do with the protests but pressed that he supported "free expression."

The conference was supposed to be about the victorious meeting of the two leaders. However, Xi's speech just showed how complicated the relationship of China and the U.S. , afterall.

Although the announcement about a joint plan regarding climate change was said to transform negotiations in the international community and world leaders, the two leaders still talked about the issue that divided Nixon and Mao.

It was a press conference between former president Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin back in 1998 as the two then world leaders battled with each other during the said session.

Obama said during the conference that his meetings with the Chinese president has given him the chance to discredit the notion that U.S. pivoting to Asia, only means they want to contain China.

Xi countered, pressing that it's only natural for them not to see eye to eye but he noted that there are common interests between his country and the U.S. despite their differences.

According to reports, Xi also dodged the questions about China fearing the Obama administration and their refusal to issue visas to foreign correspondents. However, after a lengthy attempt to not answer the second question, Xi pressed that the visa problems are due to "their own making," in reference to the foreign correspondents. He added that they are protecting the rights of the news media organizations but they still need to abide by China's laws. 

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