BEIJING: Vladimir Putin gave his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a Russian smart phone, the dual-screen YotaPhone 2, when they met in Beijing at APEC.
In an online video, Mr. Xi examines the phone’s two screens and thanks Putin. One of the phone’s screens is a Kindle-like electronic-paper display, which can still be read if the battery is turned off. The other screen is a regular smart phone touch screen.
“Do we have any cooperation on this?” Mr. Xi asks through a translator, gesturing at the device. “There will be,” Mr. Putin says. It’s an apt gift for China’s leader, who himself has given out Chinese ZTE smart phones as gifts this year to officials in countries like Tajikistan.
High-tech gadgets have begun to take their place alongside tapestries and pandas as state gifts, as countries try to promote their nation’s tech brands. Even U.S. President Barack Obama gave Queen Elizabeth II an iPod in 2009.
Electronics gifts are an especially good publicity move in China, where the public is rabidly interested in their leaders’ phone choice. Mr. Xi’s wife made waves last year when she was caught on camera using an Apple iPhone instead of a Chinese brand. She has since been seen with a ZTE. (As for Mr. Putin, he said in 2010 that he had no mobile phone, but was spotted in 2012 with a Russian device that was built with the help of ZTE).
In the case of the YotaPhone 2, Xi might want to think twice before actually using the device—and not only for the sake of patriotic appearances. Russia’s state-run defence company Rostec took a 25% stake in the phone’s maker, Yota Devices, this year. Yota didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. China has been hyper-alert about the possibility of foreign cyber spying since Edward Snowden’s revelations of the U.S. spying tactics.
Among Chinese citizens, the gifted phone sparked more mirth than envy. “Be aware of the bug installed inside,” joked one person on Weibo. “I bet there is a special phone number stored in there especially for Xi,” another wrote.
