Xi Zhongxun
In an interview in 2014, Gyari said he remained optimistic despite decades of fruitless negotiations with the Chinese. Xi Zhongxun, the father of China's leader Xi Jinping, met the Dalai Lama in the 1950s, and the Tibetan leader offered him a luxury watch which he had shown to Gyari at their 1982 meeting. Gyari said he hoped that Xi Jinping had inherited his father's affinity for Tibet.