It’s pretty rare to get to listen in to a private conversation between two of the most powerful people in the world, so fair play to the cameraman who realised something interesting could be happening during this interaction between President Xi Jinping of China and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau at G20 this week.

Turns out (somewhat ironically), Xi was scolding Trudeau for leaking their private conversations to the media:

Intimate insight of Xi lecturing Trudeau at G20. Xi said it was not ok, to leak their previous discussion points to newspapers.

“That’s not the way the conversation was conducted” pic.twitter.com/AxOJF9RtxE

— Marcel Münch (@_mm85) November 16, 2022

Fascinating. Here’s a translation of what was said from a helpful Redditor:

0:21: Xi to Trudeau: “Regarding everything we discussed, it was leaked to the media, that’s not appropriate (Note, in Mandarin Xi actually said “That’s not Ok” ’不行‘). And furthermore that’s not the way the conversation went. If you are sincere, we should communicate with each other in a respectful manner, otherwise it will be hard to say what the result will be like…“

0:45: Trudeau to Xi (interrupting the interpreter when the interpreter said “If there was sincerity on your part…): “In Canada we believe in free and open and Frank dialogue, and which we will continue to have. And we will continue to like to work constructively together, but there will be things we will continue to disagree on, and we will have to [indiscernible].”

0:57: Xi to Trudeau: “We have to create the right conditions first, alright then?“ （好啊?)

Xi then extends his hand to stop the conversation with a handshake as he turned away. He then says the words “truly naïve” to his team as he walks away from the conversation.

I’m not going to pretend like I know what Trudeau leaked to the media (or if he even did what Xi is accusing him of), but for a ruthless dictator like Xi to confront him like this at a public event must’ve been pretty uncomfortable. I guess Trudeau stood his ground considerably well, except he probably should have let the translator finish translating before responding. Anyway, another political beef to keep an eye on.

For the time Trudeau was caught making fun of Donald Trump at a NATO summit, click HERE.