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  • Titans of American tech industry have photo op with Xi Jinping following Internet forum

    Chinese Xi with tech giants Chinese Xi with tech giants

    Chinese President Xi Jinping's U.S. tour is officially heating up. He met yesterday with some of the biggest names in American tech at a Seattle forum before going off to tour a Boeing airplane factory.

    At Microsoft's campus the leaders of the American tech industry were all allowed to line up for a 10-minute photo up with the Chinese leader. First in line? None other than Xi super fan Mark Zuckerberg, who reportedly managed to get a laugh out of the Chinese president while speaking Mandarin.

    Also in attendance for the Internet forum held jointly by China and Microsoft were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon chief Jeffrey Bezos and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. Top Chinese tech executives like Jack Ma attended the forum as well.

    Here's what the Chinese President had to say to all these tech titans, according to The New York Times:

    Mr. Xi told the executives that China advocated cooperation in development of the Internet in line with China’s “national realities,” a phrase that critics say is in contrast to the open Internet in the West.

    Mr. Xi told the executives that a “secure, stable and prosperous” cyberspace had become an issue for all countries, a vague reference apparently to the severe disagreements between the United States and China over how to manage cyber-related issues.

    Meanwhile, The New York Times adds that Xi was informed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker that American companies had concerns about cybertheft and regulation transparency in China. Reportedly, Xi said all the right things about creating a level playing field, but American executives left unconvinced. "Actions speak louder than words," one tech executive told The New York Times.

    In a speech the day before, Xi denied that China engaged in any hacking whatsoever, amid some American pop culture references.

    Xi also found time to tour a Boeing factory in Everett, Washington. It must have been a pretty impressive tour because Boeing and Xi also announced that Chinese companies have signed a deal to buy 300 more Boeing planes this year, according to CNN. Boeing estimates that China will need 6,330 new airplanes over the next 20 years, which could mean $950 billion for the company.

    At the forum, he even hit the CEOs with this zinger: “We are at Microsoft, while in the morning, I visited Boeing, which is hardware. So, we’ve had both the hard things and the soft things.”

    The day wasn't all perfect though.

    In case you are curious, here's a list of all the executives in attendance, via Geekwire:

    Top row: Sugon CEO Li Jun; Didi-Kuaidi CEO Cheng Wei; Broadband Capital CEO Tian Suning; CEC CEO Liu Liehong; Baidu CEO Zhang Yaqin; AME Cloud Ventures CEO Jerry Yang; Inspur CEO Sun Pishu; Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky; Sequoia Capital China founder Shen Nanpeng.

    Middle row: Sohu CEO Zhang Chaoyang; AMD CEO Lisa Su; Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing; Microsoft VP Harry Shum; Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf; CETC CEO Xiong Qunli; Intel CEO Brian Krzanich; Qihoo 360 CEO Zhou Hongyi; LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman; SINA CEO Cao Guowei.

    Bottom row: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg; JD.com CEO Liu Qiangdong; Cisco CEO John Chambers; Alibaba founder Jack Ma; IBM CEO Ginni Rometty; President Xi; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; China Minister Lu Wei; Apple CEO Tim Cook; Tencent CEO Pony Ma; Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

    One CEO appears to have been more affected by his meeting with Xi Jinping than all the others.

    Facebook has even launched a page dedicated to the Chinese leader's trip called "Xi's US Visit." It has more than 500,000 followers.