G20 Meet: When Chinese president Xi Jinping asked business leaders to 'take their clothes off'

It appears that the great Chinese firewall kicked into gear when Chinese Premier Xi Jinping made a slip-up during the G-20 summit Hangzhou, China. During the Business 20 summit the Xi used the phrase ‘take off one’s clothes’ instead of the phrase ‘to ease agricultural policy’. Quoting an ancient Chinese text, Xi meant to say, ‘lighten the tariffs, straighten the roads, facilitate trade, and ease agricultural policy’, reports the Hong Kong Free Press. He reportedly used the simplified Chinese character for clothes (kuanyi) instead of the one for agriculture (kuannong), which led to the goof up.

Ming Pao journalist Pang Jiaoming tweeted: “Within the wall, the media people who were the first to make fun of “kuanyi” have already been questioned and criticised. His statement has already been directly shared via screenshots by lazy people. Hopefully there won’t be worse consequences. These words that were spoken in broad daylight were heard by the whole world – there was no one who was the first to hear it.”

G20 promises to coordinate on economy, but little in way of concrete steps

Leaders from the world's top economies broadly agreed at a summit in China on Monday to coordinate macroeconomic policies, but few concrete proposals emerged to meet growing challenges to globalisation and free trade. At the two-day gathering in the scenic Chinese city of Hangzhou, the world's most powerful leaders also agreed to oppose protectionism, with Chinese President Xi Jinping urging major economies to drive growth through innovation, not just fiscal and monetary measures.

"We aim to revive growth engines of international trade and investment," Xi said in a closing statement. "We will support multilateral trade mechanisms and oppose protectionism to reverse declines in global trade."

Discussions at the meeting were distracted by North Korea test-firing three medium-range ballistic missiles in a defiant reminder of the risks to global security. North Korea has tested missiles at sensitive times in the past to draw attention to its military might.

But Monday's launch risked embarrassing its main ally Beijing, which has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure a smooth summit meeting. Beijing said it hoped relevant parties would avoid taking any actions that would escalate tensions. The United States called the launch reckless, while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told US President Barack Obama that it was unforgivable.

On other fronts, the United States tried but failed to finalise a deal with Russia for a ceasefire in Syria on the sidelines of the summit. Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a longer-than-expected discussion about whether, and how, they could agree on a deal, a senior US administration official said.

But in talks earlier on Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were unable to come to terms on a ceasefire for the second time in two weeks, although they will meet again this week.

The G20 called for the formation of a global forum to take steps to address steel excess capacity and encourage adjustments, the White House said in a statement, one of the controversial issues discussed at the summit.

China produces half the world's annual output of 1.6 billion tonnes of steel and has struggled to decrease its estimated 300 million tonne overcapacity, and rising prices have given companies there an incentive to boost production for export.

With inputs from Reuters