White House Photos Show a Smiling Xi Jinping — Candid Moments Rarely Seen in China

White House Photos Show a Different Side of Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping is seldom pictured with an easy grin. Over his 12 years in power, state media have presented China’s most powerful leader in decades as solemn, controlled and steady. But a set of images released by the White House during the Asia‑Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea reveals a more relaxed, off‑guard side of Xi — scenes that are rarely visible on China’s tightly censored domestic platforms.

At the APEC meeting in Busan, Xi met with U.S. leader Donald Trump for a bilateral session at Gimhae Air Base. While much attention centered on high‑stakes topics — from soybeans and fentanyl to rare earths and advanced computer chips — White House photographs captured two unexpectedly candid moments.

In one image, Trump leans across a negotiation table with his arm extended to show Xi a sheet of paper; what was on the paper was not disclosed. In another frame, Xi appears to be smiling with his eyes closed while Foreign Minister Wang Yi laughs nearby. The photographs do not indicate whether they are shown in chronological order.

Two days later, Reuters video recorded a lighter exchange during a gift‑giving moment with South Korea’s President Lee Jae‑myung. Lee first presented Xi with a wooden board for the traditional game Go. Xi reciprocated by giving Lee and his wife two Xiaomi phones, which an official said included displays made in South Korea. When Lee quipped, “How is the communication security?” the room laughed and Xi replied: “You can check if there’s a backdoor.”

Backdoor refers to a hidden method for accessing a device without the user’s knowledge — a cybersecurity concern that has fueled mutual accusations between China and other governments.

Beijing has publicly pushed back against a U.S. proposal to require advanced chips sold abroad to include tracking features, a suggestion that prompted Nvidia to state its chips had no “backdoors.” Conversely, several Western countries have expressed cybersecurity concerns about certain China‑made devices.

These informal international moments stand in sharp contrast to Xi’s tightly managed domestic image. State media recently depicted him presiding over a military parade in a Mao suit — an outfit associated with founding leader Mao Zedong — and he has continued to lead with austere, tightly scripted public appearances, including party plenums and formal speeches.

Xi’s style differs from some predecessors; for example, Jiang Zemin (1993–2003) was known for a more flamboyant, extroverted public persona. Under Xi, however, restrictions on expression and strict control of imagery have made elite politics more opaque, prompting analysts and foreign observers to parse small signals — from his word choice to seemingly trivial details — for clues about China’s direction.

Notably, the lighter images and footage from South Korea were largely absent from major Chinese social platforms. Clips and photos of Xi’s relaxed exchanges with Trump and Lee were not found on Douyin (China’s TikTok) or Xiaohongshu. A few Chinese‑language outlets based outside the mainland posted accounts on Weibo, but those entries displayed only a handful of visible comments despite hundreds of initial responses — a pattern consistent with post‑publication censorship.

These photos underscore how differently leaders can be presented at home and abroad, and how tightly controlled narratives shape public perception inside China.