President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan arrive at Seattle, the first stop of his state visit to the United States Source: Xinhuanet
BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Intern reporter Kai Ke/China Youth Online)--ABC News reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan arrived at Seattle at 9:41 local time, starting his first state visit to the United States. Based on relevant media reports, here our reporter worked out a timeline of President Xi’s stay in Seattle in Day 1.
09:41am (Seattle local time)
President Xi's special plane landed at an airport thirty miles away from Seattle.
Washington state governor Jay Inslee, former Washington state governor and U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke and Seattle Major Ed Murray were among the group welcoming President Xi at the airport.
It is reported that other delegation members, including Wang Huning and Li Zhanshu, arrived by the same plane.
03:20pm
President Xi and accompanying officials attended the Third US-China Governors Forum where the two sides held in-depth discussions on cooperation in the areas like clean energy technology.
Each side introduced the efforts of the government in reduction of carbon emissions. These efforts included popularization of solar energy and other renewable energy sources, establishment of low-carbon transportation standards, improvement of energy efficiency, and research on new clean technologies.
Oregon state governor Brown Kate said that cooperation is a win-win solution for China and the United States - not only in carbon emissions reduction, but also in economic growth.
06:40pm
Xi delivered a speech at a welcome banquet in Seattle. It is reported that this would be Xi's only policy speech during this state visit. In the speech, he recounted his past experiences in remote and poverty-stricken areas of China when he was young and talked about how China's rapidly growing economy helped millions of the Chinese people get rid of poverty.
He stressed that China will continue to focus on the central task of economic construction to enable more people to live a better-off life.
When speaking of cyber security, an area of great concern for China and the United States, President Xi said that China is a staunch defender of cyber security and also a victim of hacking. He said that despite differences between the two sides on some issues, China is ready to cooperate with the United States in fighting hacking.
According to CNN reports, President Xi noted in his speech that commercial cyber theft and hacking are prohibited by Chinese law and that the Chinese government will not, in whatever form, engage in commercial theft or encourage or support such attempts by anyone.
CNN interviewed Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, who was also present at the welcome banquet. Jack stated that cyber security is no longer a problem exclusive to the United States and has evolved into a global issue that requires global cooperation to address.
President Xi also talked about China's recent anti-corruption efforts in his speech. He noted that China's fight against corruption is not a political struggle. "In our vigorous campaign against corruption, we have punished both 'tigers' and 'flies' in response to people's demand. This has nothing to do with power struggle. It's nothing like what you see in House of Cards," he said.
Day one of President Xi's visit successfully came to an end. The forum and the speech were the highlights of the day. Xi's itinerary today also included a roundtable discussion with business leaders, a visit to Boeing's largest commercial aircraft manufacturing base in Seattle, and a revisit to Lincoln High School at Tacoma. Our reporter will stay tuned to what tomorrow has to offer President Xi.
