US officials encountered a remarkable – even unprecedented – level of concern from their Beijing counterparts over how Chinese President Xi Jinping would be treated during his brief visit to the United States this week, people familiar with the matter said.
Over months of intricate planning, Chinese officials demonstrated an enormous amount of focus on ensuring every piece of choreography surrounding Xi’s summit with President Joe Biden on Wednesday – down to where Xi would sit and what he might see out of the window at any given moment – would guarantee the Chinese leader was treated with respect, sources familiar with the planning told CNN.
That included the timing and location of the summit, which is occurring amid a larger gathering of Pacific leaders in San Francisco. Instead of meeting in one of the many rooms set aside for bilateral meetings at the cavernous Moscone convention hall, the two men will meet at a separate location outside San Francisco city limits.
Even after confirming that Biden and Xi would meet, administration officials would only describe the location of the summit as the “Bay area,” citing security concerns. The still-to-be-disclosed venue for Wednesday’s summit was kept a secret from even members of the White House press corps traveling with Biden to San Francisco until hours before the meeting.
White House officials scouted a number of venues, sources said, taking into account security considerations and how much the space could accommodate. But there were more superficial factors at play, too – like the look and feel of the venue, one source said.
“All the logistical arrangements are pretty intense, as you would imagine,” one senior US administration official said.
Even the flowers, food and drink have been subject to intense discussions between the two sides, which each hope the meeting will…
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