A rare opportunity to see the Chinese leader up close and (sort of) personal

As the most powerful Chinese leader in generations, Xi Jinping rarely bothers to charm a crowd. His public appearances in China are carefully crafted, with fawning frames and adoring fans carefully positioned around him.

So when Mr. sometimes, less filtered than normal.

There were a few moments when Mr. Xi became animated — or came closest — such as when a group of Iowans he had met in the 1980s came through the reception line at a gala dinner in San Francisco on Wednesday evening. Mr. Xi’s face lit up as he greeted the man who had driven him through rural Iowa, when Mr. Xi was a young party official from Hebei province, hoping to gain insight into American agricultural technology.

Earlier, the Chinese leader had compared presidential limousines to Mr Biden when they met on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. And he thanked Mr. Biden for reminding him that his wife, Peng Liyuan, a famous Chinese soprano and folk singer, has a birthday on Monday, as does Mr. Biden.

Mr Xi said he had forgotten because he had worked so hard.

It was hardly an extraordinary achievement for an ordinary politician, or even for Chinese leaders of the past, but Mr Xi’s performance at the APEC summit was striking for one of the most independent Chinese leaders in decades, who has left virtually nothing personal life reveals. despite propaganda organs pressuring him as a man of the people.

The secrecy surrounding Mr. Xi has only intensified as he has concentrated his power by jailing and retiring political rivals and taking greater control of the civilian government and military.

Behind the scenes, during four hours of talks with Mr. Biden and an array of his national security and economic aides, Mr. Xi was generally controlled and cautious, participants said. They reported that he spoke fluently on the issues that have divided Beijing and Washington, but turned to his notes and stuck to the script when the topic turned to Ukraine or unrest in the Middle East.

Nothing Americans saw fundamentally changed their view of Mr Xi – a Chinese leader with control over his emotions and an iron grip on his country. He didn’t put on a cowboy hat like Deng Xiaoping did in Texas in 1979, or come with a stuffed panda for a two-year-old, like Jiang Zemin did at the same APEC summit in Seattle 30 years ago. At that summit, Mr. Jiang answered extensive questions from American reporters; Mr Xi did not take anything, leaving Mr Biden to answer questions about the summit meeting alone.

Still, the summit was a moment Xi had been preparing for over the past five months, having largely remained out of sight of U.S. officials other than his only previous meeting with Mr. Biden in Bali last year. This summer he began hosting Americans, starting with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.

He invited Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, to visit to commemorate Mr. Kissinger’s centenary – and organized a five-hour celebration clearly intended to send the message that the opening of the United States to China, which Mr. Kissinger helped engineer, represented a golden age that needed to be repeated.

All of this has led to a tonal change in the relationship; when Mr Xi repeated his statement that the planet was big enough for both countries, he signaled that the two military, economic and technological superpowers could give each other some space.

But there were also indications that his fundamental views remained unchanged, especially about the United States. Mr. Biden speaks of constructive competition between the two countries, telling reporters that “it is my responsibility to make this rational and manageable so that it does not lead to conflict, that is what I am all about.”

Mr Xi has always rejected the concept of managed competition between the two countries.

“The No. 1 question for us is: are we adversaries or partners?” Mr. Xi said. “This is the fundamental and overarching issue.”

But Mr. Xi’s words may be less important than the images.

After his summit with Mr Biden, the 70-year-old Chinese leader attended the gala dinner in San Francisco with American businessmen, which he hopes will help stem the flow of foreign companies moving their investments out of China.

Mr Xi mingled with attendees, including Tesla’s Elon Musk (who stayed only for cocktails), Apple’s Tim Cook and his former hosts in Iowa.

After arriving, Mr. Xi stopped at a VIP reception, then he and other top Chinese officials formed a receiving line in a hotel ballroom, where he shook hands and took photos with guests.

For the dinner, Mr. Xi sat at a long table at the head of the ballroom, next to Evan Greenberg, the CEO of the Chubb Corporation, and Mark Casper, the CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific, both members of the China-focused organization. groups that organized the dinner.

“Xi played retail politics last night in a way that few Chinese leaders typically do,” said Ryan Hass, a China specialist at the Brookings Institution, who was in attendance.

In his speech, Mr Xi focused mainly on friendly topics, likening the US-China relationship to a tree that had “grown tall and strong” and abandoning the prospect of sending more giant pandas to California as ‘envoys of friendship’.

Jessica Chen Weiss, a professor at Cornell University, said Xi had spoken with equanimity and a hint of warmth, but that the speech had a double benefit: It invoked “the history of friendly ties between the American and Chinese people to warn against treating China as an adversary,” she said.

The speech “felt a bit like an outstretched hand,” Mr. Hass said, and may have reflected Chinese leaders’ interest in repairing ties with the business community. “There were several sharp points where you would expect them, but the overall tone of the speech seemed designed to try to lower the temperature of the tension in the relationship.”

The dinner itself was a polarizing affair, with critics of Mr Xi saying it was an embarrassment for US business leaders to spend up to $40,000 for a table at the event.

One participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the reactions said Mr Xi appeared at his table in animated conversation. He also noted that Mr Xi, who is not known for being jovial, often smiled. That contrasts with former Chinese leaders like Jiang Zemin, who once had a penchant for showmanship playing a steellap guitar during dinner in Hawaii.

Olivia Wang reporting contributed.