China’s Xi jokes about ’backdoor’ when gifting South Korea’s Lee Xiaomi phones

Chinese President Xi Jinping gifted South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung a pair of Xiaomi smartphones and jokingly urged him to "check if there's a backdoor," during a state visit on Saturday that capped the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.



Lee hosted Xi at a state summit and dinner after the APEC leaders' meeting in the South Korean city of Gyeongju, marking Xi's first visit to the U.S. ally in 11 years.



The choice of the gift - China-made Xiaomi devices brought to the home country of smartphone giant Samsung Electronics - underscored Xi's technological ambitions, recently reinforced in China's economic development plan for the next five years.



After Lee presented Xi with "the finest" wooden board for ancient strategy game Go, the pair walked over to the smartphones wrapped in black boxes and an official noted the displays on the devices were made in South Korea.



Lee lifted one of the boxes and looked at it. He then asked Xi: "How is the communication security?", upon which Xi and other gathered officials erupted in laughter. Xi then pointed at the phones and responded: "You can check if there's a backdoor."