Photos and official red phone feature in Xi's New Year address

Want ChinaTimes, Staff Reporter 2014-01-03

A still of Xi in his office from the footage of the New Year address, Jan. 1.
(Photo/China National Television)

The television footage of Chinese leader Xi Jinping giving his New Year address on Wednesday featured the president's private and work telephones as well as photographs revealing clues as to the president's lifestyle, reports our Chinese-language sister newspaper China Times.

The footage, filmed at Xi's office and broadcast by state-run China Central Television, revealed two red telephones and another white one sitting on a long wooden desk in his office. The red telephones are encrypted phone lines that connect Xi to top-level officials and the white one is his private line.

The president's red telephones first made their appearance in the 1950s after former leader Mao Zedong took power and wanted to ensure secure communication between national leaders and senior officials.

The devices, nicknamed Hong Ji in Chinese, which translates as "red machine," are usually distributed to the Beijing mayor, provincial governors, ministers and vice ministers, top-level party officials and the presidents of state-own enterprises who use it for internal communication, however, only a few people, like premier Li Keqiang, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection chief Wang Qishan and CPC General Office director Li Zhanshu are able to call Xi directly.

The white phone is used for communication between Xi and his family and for other private matters.

The footage also showed four family photos on bookshelves, taken with Xi's father Xi Zhongxun, wife Peng Liyuan, daughter Xi Mingze and his mother during his 17-year term in Fujian province. Another two photos showed Xi playing Gaelic football and hurley in Ireland when he visited the country in February 2012.