Vietnam greets China's visiting President Xi Jinping with rare 21-gun salute - and protests
President Xi Jinping was greeted with a 21-gun salute - and protests by anti-China activists - as he arrived in Hanoi yesterday.
Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were welcomed by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Pham Binh Minh at the airport. The trip is Xi's first state visit to the communist country.
Xi gave a short speech, expressing his expectation for planned meetings with Vietnamese leaders as well as representatives from all walks of life in Vietnamese society.
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China and Vietnam were "friendly next-door neighbours with similar political systems, similar development paths and intertwined futures", Xi said.
An official welcome ceremony was held at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, hosted by Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. Twenty-one cannon shots were fired, a proceeding rarely used in Vietnamese state welcome ceremonies. The same number of shots was fired in China to welcome Trong on his visit in April. Meanwhile, honour guards told Xi: "We wish the General Secretary good health".
The Vietnamese Communist Party is under great pressure from China's carrot-and-stick approach that Xi Jinping will offer on this visit
Protests against Xi's visit have broken out on the streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh since Sunday. Small groups of protesters have been seen holding banners in front of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi.