Chinese President's Wife First "First Lady" for Country

Xi Jinping bringing wife with him on foreign trips

Xi Jinping became president of China in March, and unlike every other president since the beginning of the modern reform era, he brought his wife into the spotlight with him. On his first foreign trip as president, Xi traveled with his wife Peng Liyuan—and she arguably stole the show. Domestic and foreign press cooed over her slimly fitted black trench coat and blue scarf (in Moscow), her white silk skirt-suit with upright collar (in Dar Es Salaam), her green and gold Mandarin coat with front-clasping hooks (in Pretoria). The 50-year-old Peng, still girlishly slender with cherubic cheeks, was quickly likened to Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton. When Xi meets President Obama in California on Friday, the international media's gaze will again be on Peng, who is accompanying her husband on his second foreign trip as China's president.