Spotlight: Informal meetings between Chinese, world leaders help strengthen personal bonds, avoid misunderstandings

Tasting fish and chips and a pint of Greene King IPA with British Prime Minister David Cameron in a pub in southeast England, Chinese President Xi Jinping had the opportunity to enjoy a local specialty during his recent visit to Britain.

The two world leaders, dressed casually in suits but tieless, could be seen sipping their ales, with hunting guns seen hanging on the bare brick wall behind them, at The Plough, an establishment close to Chequers, the prime minister's country house retreat about 66 km northwest of London.

After a 20-minute stay in the pub, Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, joined Cameron and his wife, Samantha, at Chequers for talks and dinner together.

The two leaders had more than four hours of in-depth discussions on governance, bilateral relations and global affairs at the countryside house.

During a stroll on the lawn with Cameron, Xi said his state visit to Britain was a huge success with fruitful results, and he was fully confident that the China-Britain relations would enter a "golden era."

"I have deeply felt the great importance attached by the British side and your earnest expectations about the development of our ties, as well as the friendly feelings of the British people toward the Chinese people," the president said.

Citing the multitude of agreements reached by the two countries, Xi said that they not only lifted the China-Britain ties to a new height, but also drew a blueprint for deepening bilateral cooperation.

"China is willing to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation with all countries to realize common development and prosperity, and will strengthen cooperation with Britain in such fields as reform, innovation, rule of law and fighting corruption," he said.

Cameron, for his part, reiterated Xi's remarks on the upgrade of bilateral relations, calling it a "win-win decision" and urging both sides to implement the results of the visit.

Britain, he said, backs China in playing a bigger role in international institutions, supports the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the reform of the International Monetary Fund and the internationalization of China's currency, the RMB, and is willing to help promote China-EU relations.

Compared with their formal meeting at No. 10 Downing Street, the countryside retreat helps create a more relaxed atmosphere for discussions, during which the leaders can free themselves from diplomatic etiquette and exchange views as if they were at a friend's party, said Xu Xiujun, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Through such a casual form, personal friendship and deep mutual understandings can be established between the two leaders, which will lay a sound basis for bilateral cooperation in many areas," said Gao Zugui, vice director of the Institute for International Strategic Studies of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China.

"This unique form can inject humanized dynamism into the China-Britain relations," Gao said.

In fact, this was not the first time that Chinese and world leaders shared casual moments.

Recent years have witnessed more and more informal meetings between Chinese and world leaders, which experts say is a pioneering move of Chinese diplomacy and offered opportunities for in-depth conversations between the leaders in an easier way.

On June 7-8, 2013, Xi paid a visit to the United States, where he and U.S. President Barack Obama held two rounds of talks at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in California and reached consensus on a series of issues, including building a new model of major-country relationship.

The meeting took place only three months after Xi took office as Chinese president.

Outside the talks covering serious issues including military relations, cyber security and climate change, the two presidents were seen strolling side by side under the desert sun, without jackets or ties, in the finely manicured gardens of the Annenberg estate.

Experts say the California summit, in contrast to formal meetings that have wide-ranging agendas and very little time to cover them, allowed ample time to pursue topics in depth, including an extended exchange of views.

This "unprecedented" format in the history of China-U.S. relations "evidently reflects Xi's considerable confidence that he can handle the dynamics of an open-ended discussion," said Kenneth Lieberthal, a senior fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.

During Obama's visit to China in September 2014, Xi and Obama held a Beijing version of the "retreat meeting," holding in-depth talks in the evening at the Zhongnanhai compound, an area of Beijing known as the heart of the Chinese central government. During the talks, the two leaders pledged to promote a new type of major-country relationship between the two countries.

During Xi's U.S. visit last month, the two leaders had a casual meeting at the White House, in which the pair shed their ties and strolled out of the West Wing and across Pennsylvania Avenue to Blair House, U.S. presidents' official guest house.

Obama's national security aide Ben Rhodes said that "the most constructive engagements they've had have been in their private dinners."

This provides an opportunity, Rhodes said, to "put aside the talking points and actually get a window into one another's world view."

During Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Russia in October 2014, he and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, had a two-hour tieless meeting in the latter's Gorki residence outside Moscow, in which the two leaders blueprinted the future of pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia.

Analysts believe that private interactions between leaders can help them better understand each other's train of thought and the situation in each other's country, thus making it easier to avoid misunderstandings. Endi