between President Xi Jinping and President Biden

[GoodTaste]

In statements released after the Wednesday meeting, both countries underscored that the meeting followed up on the phone conversation between President Xi Jinping and President Biden on Sept 10.

Source: China Daily

The phrase "between President Xi Jinping and President Biden" sounds a bit odd to me. Does it sound so to you? It seems to me either "between President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden" or "between President Xi and President Biden" will work better because, it appears to be not polite enough to call one person in full name while another in short. I am not very sure.

 

[emsr2d2]

It sounds perfectly natural to me. The US president is almost always referred to by just their surname. I don't know why, but in my time, I've only ever heard the Chinese president's name in full (in the press, etc). Perhaps it's because a lot of people don't know that the surname comes first in Chinese names so could mistakenly use "President Jinping", following the western name order. Perhaps it's because the full name is always used in Chinese - I don't know if that's the case and I'm sure one of our Chinese users can tell us.

 

[Tdol]

How about Presidents Xi Jinping and Biden?

 

[GoodTaste]

Perhaps it's because the full name is always used in Chinese - I don't know if that's the case and I'm sure one of our Chinese users can tell us.

Not really. He's frequently referred to as "习主席"(President Xi) in China's media, for example: 习主席办公室今年有啥新变化？(meaning "What New Changes Are There This Year for President Xi's Office")

 

[emsr2d2]

I wasn't clear. I meant that outside China, he is commonly referred to using his full name. I readily admit that I'm so used to hearing "President Xi Jinping" that if I heard "President Xi", I'm not sure I'd know who was being talked about.