President Obama meets with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Feb., 14, ... more >Mr. Xi said that he wants to build on the relationship between Mr. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Mr. Xi said he hopes to “deepen the friendship” between the people of the two countries.
A foreign pool report of Mr. Xi’s meeting with Mr. Biden earlier in the day said Mr. Xi spoke to reporters in a “more positive way than Mr. Biden.” Mr. Biden said the U.S. has “very important economic and political concerns, that we need to work together.”
Also on the leaders’ agenda are North Korea, Iran and Syria, in the wake of China’s decision last week to join Russia in vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution targeting Syrian President Bashar Assad over his government’s bloody crackdown on opponents.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Mr. Obama expressed “our disappointment that China joined with Russia” to kill the resolution.
“We speak candidly about the concerns we have, whether it’s trade or currency or foreign policy,” Mr. Carney said.
The formal lunch at the State Department included music provided by a string quartet and the meal prepared by Chinese-American chef Ming Tsai. The menu included sweet potato soup with a crispy duck confit roulade and micro greens; soy marinated Alaskan butterfish with black garlic sauce; eight treasured rice packet with dried fruit and pork sausage; gingered swiss chard; and flourless bittersweet chocolate cake with cardamom ice cream.
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Dave Boyer is a White House correspondent for The Washington Times. A native of Allentown, Pa., Boyer worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 2002 to 2011 and also has covered Congress for the Times. He is a graduate of Penn State University. Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
Susan Crabtree is an award-winning investigative reporter with more than 15 years of reporting experience in Washington, D.C. Her reporting about bribery, corruption and conflict-of-interest issues on Capitol Hill has led to several FBI and ethics investigations, as well as consequences for members within their caucuses and at the ballot box. Susan can be reached at scrabtree@washingtontimes.com.
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