Daniel Matias via YouTube Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa drools while shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
- Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa drooled heavily while enthusiastically greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit on Tuesday.
- Xi was visiting Portugal to discuss China-European Union ties and potential investment, at a time where the EU is heavily scrutinizing Chinese investments.
- Portugal has been eager to explore possible Chinese investment into its ports and infrastructure, but de Sousa may have come across as too eager.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa enthusiastically greeted Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit on Tuesday, but in doing so let a bunch of drool escape his mouth.
Xi visited to promote China-European Union ties, at a time where the EU has increasingly started to scrutinize Chinese investments as potentially coercive, or designed to further the Chinese Communist Party's strategic goals.
Xi's One Belt One Road initiative, which seeks to take on massive infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa, and Europe, has found favor in Portugal. where the pair discussed potential development and investment.
Neither de Sousa or Xi remarked on the ongoing trade war with the US during their remarks after de Sousa welcomed Xi to Lisbon.
But this is a post about de Sousa drooling heavily after shaking hands with Xi, which was caught on camera.
Here's the video:
China often talks up Xi as a massively important and respected figure, but Chinese media doesn't seem to have mentioned the drooling.
"I know the prospect of One Belt One Road investments makes one salivate, but try to control yourself!" Laurent Thomet, Agence France-Presse's Beijing deputy bureau chief tweeted of the video.