At press conference, China leader lectures U.S. media

BEIJING — Moments of high drama played out at President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s joint press conference here Wednesday, as the Chinese leader appeared to be snubbing the U.S. by ignoring an American journalist’s questions, but eventually came around to addressing them after extended remarks on other issues.

The midday appearance was like a roller coaster ride for White House aides, who initially thought Xi was backing out of a White House announced deal to take questions from journalists — something Chinese leaders like Xi have a policy of not doing at joint press events with foreign leaders on Chinese soil.


Obama administration officials had touted the Chinese side’s willingness to take questions as a concession won after repeated requests from the U.S. to allow an open exchange between the two leaders and journalists.

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However, when a New York Times reporter posed a series of questions to both Obama and Xi, the U.S. president responded to the queries directed to him, but the Chinese president initially failed to respond to the questions put to him about the U.S. pivot to Asia and about refusal of residence permits for U.S. journalists working in China.

Instead, a Chinese press aide called on a Chinese reporter who asked a stilted question of Xi, producing a protracted, prepared statement from the Chinese leader.

The unexpected move produced a quizzical look from Obama, who seemed to think his hosts might have pulled one over on him.

However, after several minutes of broad strokes on the U.S.-China relationship, Xi returned to the questions from Times reporter Mark Landler.

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“Media outlets need to obey China’s laws and regulations,” Xi said, before launching into a metaphor suggesting that news outlets’ credentialing problems were the organizations’ own fault. “When a car breaks down in the road, perhaps we need to get off the car to see where the problem lies . … In Chinese, we have a saying: The party which has created the problem, should be the one to help resolve it.”

Xi sounded untroubled by the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia, at least in his public remarks.

“I don’t see any of the regional free-trade agreements as targeting against China,” the Chinese leader said, glossing over a more robust U.S. military presence in Asia and Australia.

Obama said he’d sought to convince Xi that there was no truth to Chinese government claims that the United States was backing pro-democracy demonstrations that began in September and for a time shut down traffic in central Hong Kong.

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“I was unequivocal in saying to President Xi that the United States had no involvement in fostering the protests that took place” Obama told reporters. “These are issues ultimately for the people of Hong Kong and China to decide.”

Though not asked directly, Xi spoke out on Hong Kong as well, describing the student-led democracy protests there as unlawful and flatly rejecting foreign criticism of authorities’ response to the demonstrations.

“The Occupy Central is an illegal movement in Hong Kong. We are fully supportive of the efforts of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to handle the situation according to the last so as to maintain social stability in Hong Kong and protect the life and property of Hong Kong residents,” Xi said. “Hong Kong affairs are exclusively Chinese internal affairs, and foreign countries should not interfere in those affairs in any form or fashion.”

The most significant announcements in Obama and Xi’s statements to reporters were a joint rollout of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and an agreement to promote greater cooperation between the U.S. and Chinese militaries.

The climate announcement calls for the U.S. to cut carbon emissions 26-28 percent by 2025 and for China to end growth of greenhouse gas output by 2030, or potentially sooner. The commitments are not binding and don’t amount to any kind of formal pact, but both economic giants hope the moves will prod other countries to make serious commitments to rein in emissions believed to be fueling global warming.

“This is a major milestone in the U.S.-China relationship, and it shows what’s possible when we work together on an urgent global challenge,” Obama declared.

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The military agreement will require both sides to declare major military exercises in advance and set rules for encounters between U.S. and Chinese aircraft and ships.

Obama said the pact will “reduce the risk of accidents or miscalculations on the sea and in the air.”

While Xi has made comments in recent months about putting Asians in charge of Asian affairs, Xi struck a more conciliatory tone Wednesday, hinting at a recognition of U.S. interests in the Pacific Rim.

“The Pacific Ocean is broad enough to accommodate the development of both Asia and the United States and our two countries to work together to broaden security in Asia,” Xi said. “These are mutually complementary efforts.”

The two leaders also touted deals announced previously during Obama’s three-day visit here, including a pact to extend the length of business visas to 10 years and student visas to five years as well as a deal to reduce tariffs on information technology products.

While Xi’s answers on Hong Kong and Western press freedom in China were strident and uncompromising, offering no sign U.S. diplomacy had moved Xi on those issues, even unwelcome answers were better news for the White House than if Xi had ignored the questions entirely.

After the press conference, a senior U.S. official said he thought Xi’s answer on press access was revealing in that he appeared to concede that the difficulties the Times and other outlets were having with credentialing was a direct result of their reporting.

Another official said the U.S. had intentionally selected the Times to ask a question of Xi Wednesday because of the problems the American newspaper had encountered since publishing an article in 2012 about the personal wealth of the families of prominent Chinese leaders. The story led Chinese officials to block Internet access to the Times and to refuse visa renewals for Times correspondents.

The issue of whether Wednesday’s event would be a press conference had been among the most closely watched points by reporters covering Obama’s trip. A misunderstanding about questions at Obama’s 2009 visit to Beijing contributed to a media narrative about the U.S. acquiescing in Chinese censorship and limits on news coverage.

In their remarks on Hong Kong Wednesday, neither leader noted that the former British territory is guaranteed a democratic form of government through 2047 under a treaty signed by China and the United Kingdom that led to the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.