Xi Vows to Send Seeds After Trump Admires His ‘Most Beautiful Roses’
President Trump expressed amazement Friday at the sprawling gardens and towering roses inside Beijing’s tightly guarded Zhongnanhai leadership compound during a personal tour hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“These are the most beautiful roses anyone’s ever seen! I asked the president, ‘Could you get me some for the Rose Garden?’ and he said yes. I’ve never seen roses so big!” Trump said while wrapping up his visit to China.
As Xi guided Trump through the historic complex, a translator explained that the Chinese leader had agreed to send rose seeds to the White House following Trump’s admiration for the flowers.
“We will provide the president with some of our Chinese rose (Rosa chinensis) seeds, as he wants to plant some in the rose garden,” a translator said, according to the press pool report.
“I love that. That’s great,” Trump responded.
During the walk through the compound, Xi described Zhongnanhai as the nerve center of China’s Communist leadership and the longtime residence of the nation’s rulers.
“the place where leaders of the party central government of China work and live, including myself.
“After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, we have been here, including Chinese leaders: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and so on.”
Photos from the visit showed Trump examining the former imperial grounds with visible fascination as Xi encouraged him to inspect centuries-old trees scattered throughout the property.
“On our way in, we stayed to look at some of the old trees. One of them is 490 years old. In other places within this compound, there have been trees that have lived to be over 1,000 years old,” Xi said while discussing the tour.
“The President was interested in learning all about that, including the Chinese roses, which we looked at. And I’ve agreed to send the seeds for these roses to the President as a gift.”
Trump later praised the estate, calling it a “nice place.”
Xi reportedly extended the rare invitation as a gesture of appreciation for Trump’s hospitality during Xi’s 2017 visit to Mar-a-Lago shortly after Trump entered office.
The 1,500-acre Zhongnanhai compound has served as the seat of Chinese Communist authority since Mao Zedong’s victory in the civil war in 1949. Mao chose the former imperial grounds as the headquarters of Communist leadership, believing it reflected the party’s message of governing in the name of the people.
The heavily restricted complex — often compared to America’s White House — has only rarely been opened to foreign leaders since President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking trip to China in 1972.
Barack Obama met Xi there in 2014, while President George W. Bush toured the site during a 2002 visit and met then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.
Obama’s visit included a stop at Yingtai Island, where the Guangxu Emperor was imprisoned under house arrest for a decade before his death following the 1898 political upheaval.
At one point during Friday’s tour, Xi appeared to subtly needle Trump while mentioning that Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously been hosted at the compound.
“Can I ask the president.. does he bring them here?” Trump asked.
“Very few,” Xi replied. “We usually don’t hold diplomatic events here.
“Even after we started having some, it’s still extremely rare. For example: Putin.”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, also visited Xi at the compound on June 4 of last year during what marked his 15th trip to China.
{Matzav.com}
