Chinese President Xi Jinping gave President Lee Jae-myung a "Xiaomi 15 Ultra" during their summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' meeting in Gyeongju in Nov. last year. As Lee examined the smartphone, he asked, "Is the communications security solid?" Xi smiled and replied, "Check whether there's a back door," which drew attention. On the 5th of this month, during his state visit to China, Lee took a selfie with his spouse Kim Hea-kyung and Xi and his spouse using the Xiaomi 15 Ultra that Xi had given him.
On the 19th, President Lee Jae-myung gave visiting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni a pink Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7. The two leaders took a selfie with the smartphone and chatted in a friendly atmosphere.
More national leaders around the world are giving smartphones as diplomatic gifts. Smartphones can signal technological prowess that drives economic growth and a desire for cooperation, and the commemorative photos taken with them are becoming a tool of informal diplomacy.
The Xiaomi smartphone Xi gave Lee is the 15 Ultra model worth 1,699,000 won. Although Xiaomi's latest smartphone at the time was the Xiaomi 17 Premium, the reason Xi gave the older 15 Ultra is interpreted as being because the model was officially released in Korea in Mar. last year. In addition, the 15 Ultra's display was made by Samsung Display. In the case of the Xiaomi 17 model, its display is not a Samsung product.
For Xiaomi, whose market share in Korea remains in the 0% range, Xi's move helped raise its profile in the Korean market. Xiaomi Korea launched the "life shot campaign" on the 6th of this month, immediately after the selfie of Lee and Xi and his spouse became a hot topic. Regardless of model, if you upload a photo taken with a Xiaomi smartphone through a photo-sharing event on the official Instagram, commemorative gifts are given by drawing lots.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 that Lee gave to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was in Meloni's favorite pink. It also took into account that her daughter, Ginevra, who accompanied the trip, is an avid K-pop fan. When Meloni disembarked from her plane for the visit, she was holding a Blackpink light stick.
Meloni first met Lee in New York in Sept. last year and said her daughter is "the most enthusiastic K-pop fan in the world." In Aug. last year, she visited a Blackpink concert in Milan, Italy, with her daughter.
On the diplomatic stage, gifts go beyond a simple exchange of items to serve as a means of winning favor and building and maintaining ties between countries. For example, in Aug. last year, when U.S. President Donald Trump said of the fountain pen President Lee Jae-myung had been using, "That pen is nice," Lee said, "I signed today's agreement with this pen," and gave it to him on the spot. A fountain pen can also mean writing the future of the relationship together.
Gifts can also be interpreted differently. In 2005, former Chinese President Hu Jintao proposed giving a pair of pandas to commemorate his meeting with Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan, but the plan was shelved due to opposition from the then-ruling Democratic Progressive Party. The gift was delivered in Dec. 2008 after Kuomintang President Ma Ying-jeou, who was friendly toward China, took office. In 2022, the Japanese Embassy in Korea returned former President Moon Jae-in's Lunar New Year gift box, saying it carried another intention because it bore a painting of the sunrise over Dokdo.