https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/reporters-notebook/xi-jinping-visit/china-pope-francis
A Light Lunch With the Vice President
sept 25 2015
After the formalities of a White House 21 gun salute, and a news conference with American reporters (the questions were not too difficult), Mr. Xi drove to the State Department for a lunch in the elegant Benjamin Franklin Room with about 200 guests.
Mr. Xi had been there before: in 2012 when he was still vice president but on his way to becoming president. Many of the guests were familiar faces to Mr. Xi, including Henry Kissinger and Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, who were both with him earlier this week in Seattle.
Just as in 2012, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. introduced Mr. Xi. Mr. Biden insisted relations between China and the United States were in good shape, and the disputes between the countries should not be overstated. After all, he said: “We have differences with our allies.”
Then Mr. Biden could not resist a joke involving Iowa as the first state in the presidential election cycle, a place to build political support.
Mr. Xi has traveled to Muscatine, Iowa, twice, Mr. Biden said. First as a young Communist Party official and then in 2012 as vice president.
Mr. Xi had invited Mr. Biden to join him on the 2012 trip. And in retrospect, he should have gone, Mr. Biden said. “He went and became president and I am still vice president.”
The Chinese leader, a master of Communist Party politics, appeared to understand the American variety. And in response, he smiled.