A high-tech flavour for Xi

Washington: In a reflection of just how important Washington’s relationship with Beijing has become, President Barack Obama on Friday held his second state dinner for China, the only country to receive such a double honour from him.

And the guest list reflected just how important Beijing is to America’s titans of technology. The guests included Mark Zuckerberg, who is trying to persuade the Chinese government to lift a ban on Facebook, the company he founded, and Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, which sells more iPhones in China than in any other country.

Also on the list were Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft, which wants China to approve sales of its latest operating system, Windows 10; Larry Ellison, executive chairman of Oracle; and Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation.

Zuckerberg, Cook and Nadella were seated at the head table with Obama and President Xi Jinping of China. The tech executives arrived just hours after Xi said in a news conference that his nation and the United States had reached consensus on a “joint fight against cybercrimes”. US officials have accused China of stealing millions of personnel records from federal computer systems.