China’s President Xi Jinping met on Nov. 1 with South Korea’s new President Lee Jae-Myung on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in South Korea. Xinhua reports that President Xi said on Nov. 1 that “China stands ready to work with South Korea to ensure the steady and long-term development of their strategic cooperative partnership,” and “urged the two countries to strengthen multilateral cooperation and jointly promote peace and development.”
President Lee “extended a warm welcome to President Xi on his state visit to South Korea,” the first in the past 11 years. He welcomed China’s chairmanship of APEC for the coming year. He presented Xi with a Go table and lacquerware inlaid with mother-of-pearl, according to the Korea Herald. Lee’s office said on Nov. 1 that the gift “symbolizes South Korea’s hope for closer relations with China, as players from both countries together lead the professional Go scene.”
(Go is an ancient Chinese board game which involves complex geometrical and statistical calculations. It is more challenging than chess due to the number of possible moves.)
