The Chinese Disaster

Have you been following the news about President Hu's visit to the White House? It was full of the type of faux pas that we might consider minor annoyances but to a Chinese way of thinking they would be major insults.

One of the main ones is the Falun Gong protester during President Hu's speech. Why did it take so long to escort her out of the area? While we do favor dissent here in the United States (at least on paper), we also limit protesters to certain areas usually. Big protests need a permit for example. Environmentalist are routinely arrested for chaining themselves together to block logging trucks. Given the delicate relationship we have with China, it is vital we don't embarrass their leader. It didn't appear that she lied in obtaining her temporary credentials, and she wrote for a Falun Gong newspaper, so someone should have caught that.

The next one was how President Bush at first motioned to escort President Hu off the stage and, a moment later, when Bush realized they needed to stay on there to take a picture or something, he grabbed Hu by the back of his jacket and pulled in back. No wonder this was just an "official" visit and not a "state" visit. We can't even keep from manhandling our guests!

The third one that I remember was that during the official playing of the Chinese anthem it was announced as Taiwan's anthem. They said Republic of China, which is the official name of Taiwan, instead of People's Republic of China, which is mainland China. You must remember the ongoing tension between Taiwan and China, and the US and China over Taiwan. Confusing the two is a very basic mistake that should not have happened.

These sort of slight could have a big cumulative effect and hurt our relationship with China. This administration is incompetent and criminal.