On Friday, the White House press pool reported, based on background from an advisor traveling with First Lady Michelle Obama, that Michelle Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and brought her daughters Sasha and Malia. According to the report, “The atmosphere was very warm with very engaged body language, the adviser said. Most of the conversation was between Xi and Obama though [Chinese First Lady] Peng interjected a couple of times.” Sasha and Malia conversed with Xi, with Xi explaining “how pleased he was to welcome the family and appreciated Obama's focus on education.”
Obama thanked Xi for the “warm welcome” and talked about the “importance of teaching children – including her own – about other culture.”
Here is the full press pool report:
Read out of the closed press portion of FLOTUS meeting with President Xi provided on background from an adviser traveling with the first lady:
Obama's meeting with President Xi lasted about a half hour. The atmosphere was very warm with very engaged body language, the adviser said. Most of the conversation was between Xi and Obama though Peng interjected a couple of times.
Xi directed some of his comments to Sasha and Malia, saying how pleased he was to welcome the family and appreciated Obama's focus on education.
Obama thanked him for the warm welcome and talked about the importance of teaching children -- including her own -- about other cultures.
The unidentified Chinese officials in the room referenced in Pool report # 5 were senior aides to President Xi.
Ambassador Baucus did not speak during the meeting but he and Xi exchanged words as it ended, the adviser traveling with the first lady said.
Chinese and U.S. officials agreed to keep the dinner between Obama and Peng off the record so your pool has no information about what they ate or discussed. The dinner lasted about an hour. They also saw a performance that was described as a music and dancing medley.
The entire evening ran from about 6 pm- 9 pm.
A senior White House official described the rapport between the two women as warm and said they bonded. "It is a warm relationship. They share a lot in common, as mothers, as professional women. There was a natural warmth and affinity that came through in the first day."
So as you can tell it was warm.
