China’s state-run Xinhua news agency on Monday prepared for genocidal dictator Xi Jinping’s visit to San Francisco with a soft-focus puff piece that painted Xi as a warm-hearted lover of Americana who feels an enduring “friendship” for the American people.
Xinhua waxed poetic about Xi’s first visit to San Francisco in 1985 as “a young man in his early thirties” who could not wait to get his picture taken with the fabled Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
“That trip helped Xi get acquainted with the United States, and from then on, he fostered friendships with American people. The enduring strength of such amicable bonds has always served as a wellspring of vitality for bilateral ties, both in favorable and in challenging times,” Xinhua sighed.
U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping shake hands as they meet on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on November 14, 2022. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The Chinese state news agency found some Americans with nice things to say about Xi from his 1985 visit. These correspondents gushed about Xi’s “smile that would not stop,” his boundless curiosity, and his eagerness to see how the American working class lives.
Some of the people he met in 1985 came to a reunion with him in 2012 when he visited Iowa as China’s vice president:
Despite a tight schedule, Xi made it to the reunion in Lande’s house on a snowy day. They gathered around a couch in the living room and reminisced about their joyful memories. The hour-long meeting was filled with laughter. Thomas Dvorchak had a deep impression of the Chinese alcohol that Xi gave to him as a gift. “It was the strongest liquor that I ever had,” he told Xi.
Some in the crowd, as Lande recalled, popped up a question for Xi: “Why are you coming to Iowa?”
“You were the first group of Americans I came into contact with,” Xi told his Iowa friends. “To me, you are America.”
Xinhua touted this as evidence that Xi “never forgets his American friends” and believes “people hold the key to state-to-state relations,” a bit of greeting-card doggerel that comes off as absurd when describing an autocratic leader who jails people for criticizing him.
Xi’s regime routinely terrorizes Chinese families to keep their children in line while they study abroad. Any Chinese subject who thinks he holds the “key to state-to-state relations” will end up living in a room without windows and taking his meals through a slot in the door.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Gavin Newsom. (Huang Jingwen/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Xinhua took time to praise Xi’s latest budding friendship with a very, very, very appreciative American, namely Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. According to the Chinese state news service, Xi was overcome with happy recollections of his long-ago San Francisco jaunt when Newsom rolled into his office in Beijing last month.
Xi also had “delightful moments” with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Democrat Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who gifted Xi a box of chocolate-covered local nuts, one of which was promptly stolen by nearby President Joe Biden. They were just a bunch of fun-loving guys hanging out, except one of them runs concentration camps and uses slave labor, and the others pointedly avoided mentioning it.
