Xi attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, where he met US President Donald Trump for a bilateral meeting at Gimhae Air Base in Busan. All eyes were on how the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies would sort out their differences on a range of topics from soybeans and fentanyl to rare earth minerals and high-end computer chips.
But aside from the hard-hitting diplomacy, photographs released by the White House captured a rare candid moment between the two leaders. In a room filled with suited diplomats, Trump was seen in one image with his arm stretched across the negotiation table to show Xi a piece of paper. Whatever was written or printed on the paper remains unknown. In another image, the Chinese leader appears to grin with his eyes shut, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi laughing by his side. It’s unclear if the images were arranged in chronological order.
