Earlier today, Vice President Biden departed for Beijing, China, the first stop on a nine-day swing through Asia that also includes visits to Mongolia and Japan. While this may be his first visit to Asia as Vice President, as a Senator, Vice President Biden traveled extensively throughout Asia, including to China in 1979 as part of the first Senate delegation to the country after normalization.
This time, the Vice President is visiting China at the invitation of Vice President Xi Jinping – the first of the planned reciprocal visits between the Vice Presidents announced by President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao during his state visit to Washington earlier this year. One of the primary purposes of the trip is to get to know Vice President Xi. Bottom line – this visit is an investment in the future of the U.S-China relationship.
Our partners at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the five consulates around China are also using the Vice President’s visit as an opportunity to share American culture and values with Chinese netizens by microblogging and blogging about the trip in Chinese. Their followers on the two largest microblog sites in China – Sina and QQ – number over 1 million. Posts about the Office of the Vice President, interesting facts about Vice President Biden, his upcoming trip to Chengdu, Dr. Biden’s recent call for famine aid to Africa, and Peace Corps Volunteers in Sichuan have generated thousands of positive comments and retweets from Chinese netizens.
Fonte: White House