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Apec summit Xi shows his lighter side with phone gag
The Guardian
|November 04, 2025
It would take someone with nerves of steel to joke about the security of Chinese smartphones in front of Xi Jinping.
Step forward the South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, who, after being given two of the devices by his Chinese counterpart at a state banquet, wondered out loud whether they were secure.
Xi, who is not known for public displays of humour, laughed and smiled as Lee's quip was translated into Chinese, before displaying some sharp wit of his own.
Pointing at the phones, he invited Lee to “check if there is a backdoor” - prompting laughs and applause from his South Korean counterpart. The exchange took place at the weekend as Xi and Lee traded gifts on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Gyeongju - Xi's first visit to South Korea in more than a decade.
This story is from the November 04, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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