Chinese state visit overshadowed by Boehner, Pope

by Cory Bennett and Katie Bo Williams - 09/26/15 9:00 AM ET

The White House swapped Holy See flags for Chinese flags Friday, as news from President Xi Jinping’s much-debated state visit was overshadowed by the surprise announcement that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will step down in October.

The Pope’s emotional congressional address Thursday as Xi arrived and Boehner’s bombshell announcement Friday morning sucked up a lot of media attention that might otherwise have been trained on the sensitive visit.

The news of Boehner’s resignation broke during the 21-gun salute in Xi’s honor on the South Lawn. Obama was only informed after he met with Xi that morning, a few hours after the rest of Washington found out.

{mosads}The long-awaited joint press conference was hijacked for long portions by questions about Boehner. Two of the three questions Obama fielded touched on Boehner. He answered with extended reminiscing and a few messages for Congress.

“My hope is there’s a recognition on the part of the next speaker that we can have significant differences but that doesn’t mean you shut down the government,” Obama said.

Obama even reflected on the Pope’s message for a few minutes during the press conference.

“Between the Pope and Boehner, [the White House] probably didn’t get as much bang for their buck as they were hoping for,” said Adam Segal, a Chinese cyber policy expert and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Observers, including Segal, said that despite distractions, the visit was an encouraging step forward for the two countries, which have been bogged down by disagreements over hacking, human rights and economic policies.

Surprising many during a joint press conference in the afternoon, President Obama and Xi announced a “common understanding” that neither country would conduct or support cyber theft of intellectual property and other trade secrets for financial gain.

The two leaders also agreed to expand the climate change agreement they hatched last year, with China announcing climate financing for developing countries and a new cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions.

“Overall, it seems it was an incredibly productive summit, first yesterday on the environmental front and now on [cybersecurity],” said Robert Knake, the former White House director for cybersecurity policy at the National Security Council. “It seems like China really came to the table and was willing to play.”

The two first ladies even had a moment of international cooperation during the visit, naming the National Zoo’s giant panda cub. The formerly nameless cub, born on Aug. 22, is now called Bei Bei — “precious, treasure” in Mandarin Chinese.

Expectations of any formal agreement over hacking were low at the outset of Xi’s visit, despite pressure from lawmakers and GOP presidential candidates.

Reactions to the new deal have been mixed.

Legislators were encouraged, though wary China might not uphold its end of the bargain.

“There’s a difference between an agreement on paper and having the Chinese government, including the People’s Liberation Army, actually stop conducting and supporting cyber attacks on U.S. companies,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee.

President Obama offered little benefit of the doubt during his press conference remarks.

“What I’ve said to President Xi and what I say to the American people, the question now is, ‘Are words followed by actions?’ ” he said. “We will be watching carefully to make an assessment as to whether progress has been made in this area.”

Cybersecurity wasn’t the only point of contention throughout the week. Lawmakers and human rights groups peppered the White House with letters early in the week, urging officials to confront China on human rights abuses and territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Those groups showed up to protest Xi on Friday, skirting the perimeter of the White House throughout the day. Their chants were audible during the press conference and state dinner arrival.

On Capitol Hill, Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) held their own protest, hosting a “Stateless Breakfast” to honor Chinese human rights advocates.

Despite these demonstrations, Xi was still received with all the pomp of a full state visit, including an elaborate dinner Friday night attended by a number of high-profile business leaders such as Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Many of Silicon Valley’s power players also showed up, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.

It was the second time Xi had been in the same room with them during his stateside trip.

Part of China’s goal with Xi’s four days in the U.S. was to prove China could get the tech community to show up and work with Beijing officials, despite White House criticism ofthe country’s treatment of foreign tech firms and industry concerns over regulations that could give China access to encrypted data and intellectual property.

Although Xi successfully glad-handed with tech’s top executives, Obama warned that he wouldn’t relent.

“There’s a difference between friendly competitions,” he said during the press conference, “and competition that tilts the playing field unfairly in one direction or the other.”

“That’s typically where tensions between our countries arise, is our desire to uphold international norms and rules,” the president added.

Tags Barack Obama China Xi Jinping