Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, 58 year old son of a revolutionary war hero, just concluded his five day tour of the U.S. He met with President Barack Obama and other leaders in Washington D.C., toured Midwest and California with Vice President Joe Biden. Xi, who is fond of U.S. movies and basketball, attended the fourth quarter of the Laker basketball game in Los Angeles on Friday, February 17, 2012 without a tie. This indicates his easy going style.
The importance of his visit is that he is scheduled to assume the presidency in China in less than a year from now. The transition of power expected to be smooth without riots in the streets of China or soldiers called out to streets. New leaders in China are best educated. Xi has a Ph. D. from a prestigious Chinese university. This is quite different from previous leaderships who were revolutionary leaders or Russian trained engineers.
His trip to U.S. was short on substance, but intended to be “get to know each other” kind of a tour. He toured farms in Iowa and met with state and local leaders as well as film industry executives in Los Angeles.