A ‘Host of Indignities’

April 21, 2006

It was almost as if the Bush [tag]White House[/tag] wanted to offend Chinese President [tag]Hu Jintao[/tag] (via Atrios).

Chinese President Hu Jintao got almost everything he wanted out of yesterday’s visit to the White House. […] If only the White House hadn’t given press credentials to a Falun Gong activist who five years ago heckled Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin, in Malta. Sure enough, 90 seconds into Hu’s speech on the South Lawn, the woman started shrieking, “President Hu, your days are numbered!” and “President Bush, stop him from killing!”

[tag]Bush[/tag] and [tag]Hu[/tag] looked up, stunned. It took so long to silence her — a full three minutes — that Bush aides began to wonder if the Secret Service’s strategy was to let her scream herself hoarse. The rattled Chinese president haltingly attempted to continue his speech and television coverage went to split screen.

“You’re okay,” Bush gently reassured Hu. But he wasn’t okay, not really. The protocol-obsessed Chinese leader suffered a day full of indignities — some intentional, others just careless. The visit began with a slight when the official announcer said the band would play the “national anthem of the Republic of China” — the official name of [tag]Taiwan[/tag]. It continued when Vice President [tag]Cheney[/tag] donned sunglasses for the ceremony, and again when Hu, attempting to leave the stage via the wrong staircase, was yanked back by his jacket. Hu looked down at his sleeve to see the president of the United States tugging at it as if redirecting an errant child.

Then there were the intentional slights. [tag]China[/tag] wanted a formal state visit such as Jiang got, but the administration refused, calling it instead an “official” visit. Bush acquiesced to the 21-gun salute but insisted on a luncheon instead of a formal dinner, in the East Room instead of the State Dining Room. Even the visiting country’s flags were missing from the lampposts near the White House.

Oh yeah, and Cheney apparently fell asleep during the brief Bush-Hu press briefing.

Ever get the sense that these guys just don’t care for diplomacy?

Cheney falling asleep is just the beginning. There will be a few more until he resigns “due to health problems”. Bush will then appoint someone who he will see as electable in “08” and will carry on the “agenda”. That is , if he’s not impeached by then. Betcha that’s what is going to happen.

  • Wow. You get the impression that this stuff happens at the Bush White House all the time – and that it would be a really good idea to restart “That’s My Bush!”

  • Ever get the sense that these guys just don’t care for diplomacy?

    Yeah but as your posts explains… they sure are good at anti-diplomacy.

    In other words, China is going to make a nice sized enemy. No excuses to ever trim military spending in our lifetimes anyway….

  • Yesterday, while speaking outdoors at the White House, Chinese President Hu Jintao was heckled. Try as I might, I have been unable to find a guide book for the proper etiquette of a heckler. I decided I would come up with my own list of the do’s and don’ts of heckling. I’ve also provided some novel suggestions.

    Don’ts:

    1. When you determine it is time to begin heckling, do not raise your hand in hopes of being called upon.

    2. Do not begin your heckling with, “sir, excuse me…may I say something?”

    3. Do not ask security for a copy of the speech so you can find a point in the speech to cue your heckling.

    4. Unlike with the exit row in an airplane, do not ask those seated next to you if they feel comfortable with their role of being seated next to the heckler.

    5. Do not ask those seated at either end of the aisle if they mind tripping security when they race to remove you from the room.

    6. If asked for your press credentials at the door, do not say, “Oh, I’m just here to heckle.”

    Do’s:

    1. You must yell and screech in a shrill and inaudible voice…otherwise your incoherent message may be understood.

    2. Check with all the cameramen in the room to assure they have had time to get a preliminary focus for your seat…your time will be limited and you don’t want to miss out on a good photo-op.

    3. Provide your credentials and a brief synopsis of your rant to the press in advance so you will not be misquoted.

    4. You must appear outraged and emotional…if you are having trouble getting prepared, ask the person seated next to you to administer several bitch slaps.

    5. Once captured, continue to yell but be sure to look back at the person you are yelling at…it’s rude to avoid eye contact.

    6. Whenever possible, speak in a foreign language…it heightens the curiosity of the media.

    read full handbook here:

    http://www.thoughttheater.com

  • Wow!

    These are like, profoundly stupid things to do! Who exactly is the audiance for insulting Hu, Taiwanese-Americans? Do they have the same pull as Cuban-Americans with this White House?

    I mean, either treat the guy well or don’t invite him at all. I saw the sleeve tug, and it looked to me like Hu might explode on the spot.

    We are trying to get this guy on our side about Iran and North Korea. We know his power and prestige back home is dependent on how he is received here. We know how touchy the Chinese are. And we know they have tens of nuclear weapons and a desire to conquer Taiwan.

    I swear, I think some IDIOT in the White House figured this all out as a slap to the ‘China House’ clique at the State Department. For some brands of conservatives (Pat Robertson, say), there is no part of the Federal bureaucracy they hate or would want to humble more. But letting the Falun Gong heckler on to the White House lawn was just the dumbest part.

  • I imagine we’ll start feeling the effects of this, once Hu gets home and tells China to “buy Euros and dump Dollars….”

  • Couldn’t this be “payback”? We know that’s Bush’s M.O.

    i.e. didn’t Shrubbie provide a wonderfully embarassing photo-op in his last visit to China, where some reporter or another asked him a pointed question and he attempted to run away by leaving the stage, but got stuck going to the wrong door?

    Knowing how petty and vindictive these Bushies are, I wouldn’t be the least surprise if this entire visit was designed to humiliate Hu in retribution.

  • A second-rate showing from second-rate power. China has us by the nuts. We’re addicted to their cheap goods and now have a limited domestic production base as a result, we owe them a boatlad of money from all of the debt they’ve purchased. They’ve tied their currency valuation to ours to keep a favorable balance and they’re making friends with all our enemies who have oil to lock-up scarce resources that would be beneficial for our own economy and they’re using our revenues to build-up theri military.

    While Cheney and the boys have been asleep, China has been astutely playing a game of chess with us that we are now losing badly.

  • goatchowder – Limbaugh suggested exactly the same thing yesterday. Of course, for Rush, it was a good thing.

  • Lance is right – “profoundly stupid.” It shouldn’t be that effing difficult to get the official name of the country right, for cying out loud!!

    Do you think they’re trying and are just that incompetent or do you think they just don’t give a shit? I mean, we are talking about foreigners who look different than us red-blooded Americans, so how important is it, really? (That’s sarcasm, lest I offend anyone out there.)

    Either way, it’s another embarrassment foisted on us by this criminally inept administration. What a cluster f*ck.

  • i’m reminded of how poorly the british were treated by the imperious chinese leaders when they made their first trade overtures. we all know how well that turned out for the chinese.

  • “While Cheney and the boys have been asleep…”

    I see great potential for a DNC ad using that picture.

  • Bush and Hu looked up, stunned. It took so long to silence her — a full three minutes — that Bush aides began to wonder if the Secret Service’s strategy was to let her scream herself hoarse.

    I think they assumed the camera operator who took it upon themselves to try to smother her had it under control. It’s a sad day when a protester is silenced by their fellow citizens.

    It’s a good thing she wasn’t wearing an anti-Bush/GOP t-shirt, though. She’d have never even made it inside.

    I guess when you’re one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, China, you’ve gotta deal with the occasional “heckler.” (How demeaning to call her a heckler, it wasn’t a damned comedy show!)

  • “i’m reminded of how poorly the british were treated by the imperious chinese leaders when they made their first trade overtures. we all know how well that turned out for the chinese.” – aym

    Which reminds me.

    I must always refer to China as ‘The Middle Kingdom between Heavan and Earth’.

    Have you read ‘1421, The Year China Discoverd America’ by Gavin Menzies? It should be must reading for all Americans (especially Italian-Americans (sorry) ). The first chapter particularly illuminates where ‘The Middle Kingdom between Heavan and Earth’ imagines itself in the world order. And I believe, at the back of their commie little minds, the Red Chinese want to get back to that position.

    And W.’s budget and trade deficits are helping them to their goal.

  • This would make a good movie. Too bad Peter Sellers is dead, he could play all the parts. Is Alec Guiness dead too…?

  • I understand Hu left the U.S. and continued his trip visiting Saudi Arabia. I wonder what business he might have with the House of Saud? Let’s see…there are three big oil using countries; USA, India, and China (The PEOPLE’s Republic of). Saudia Arabia has a bit of an oil export business going. I wonder if the man who started a war on Islam should be insulting the leader of the country with the lagrest growing economy in the world. China also has a government policy of cheap energy. They need it to grow the economy. So we (W) has just pissed off the biggest competitor for oil in the world. The leader of a country that owns huge amounts of US government debt. The leader of a country who is sitting in Riyadh today.

    I cannot seem to come up with any downside. Never mind.

  • Frak,

    I like the way your mind works. And yeah, unfortunately Sir Alec is dead, too….

  • Hey, at least Daddy’s Boy didn’t barf in Hu’s lap!

    I personally subscribe to the “we have to make them an enemy” theory of all this – the National Boating Society (aka the US Navy) will never be able to build more aircraft carriers in Mississippi and Virginia or buy more airplanes built in Missouri and Texas of they don’t have a “credible threat” to point at. And without that, how do the Pentagon pimps make any money after they retire, or the Congressional “patriots” improve their investment portfolios if they don’t have some contracts to hand out???

    Trust Bush – if there isn’t an obvious way to fuck up, he’ll invent one.

  • You would think the Bushite proficiency at constructing bubbles would have been more on point. Maybe they needed an “overzealous volunteer” to weed out such n’erdowells.

    “Ever get the sense that these guys just don’t care for diplomacy?”

    What? “You’re either for us or against us!” isn’t diplomacy?

  • Well, you have to ask yourself, are there any big voting constituancies in China? Can Bush count on his base in Iraq? Are they gonna get out the vote for Bush in Venezuela? The only strategy this WH has ever had is an electoral strategy. Some of the stuff happening in world actually requires real economic, strategic and diplomatic policies; instead we get Turd Blossom, Condi, and John Bolton.

    I’m sure President Hu got what he really wanted at the dinner party with Bill and Melinda Gates.

  • It’s possible these are intentional slights. Looking back at the “Cheney’s Vice Squad” article, there are a couple of paragraphs that outline an adversarial view of China from Cheney’s office.

    There’s this:

    “Several of Cheney’s highest-ranking national security aides came out of Congresswoman Christopher Cox’s rather wild-eyed 1990s investigation of alleged Chinese spying in the United States, tied to the overblown allegations about Chinese contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign. Cox, a California Republican, chaired a highly partisan committee that issued a scathing report about China. According to The New York Times, his 700-page report portrayed China as “nothing less than a voracious, dangerous, and fully-equipped military rival of the United States.” Among the top Cheney aides who joined the OVP in 2001 from Cox’s staff were Libby, who served as legal adviser to the committee; McGrath, a key staffer for Cox; and Jonathan Burks, a senior Cox aide who became Cheney’s special assistant. Yates, who joined the team from The Heritage Foundation, is a China specialist who has long urged a more confrontational policy. In 2000, he wrote a Heritage paper offering advice to the Bush administration, and slamming Clinton for accommodating China. He urged a stronger, pro-Taiwan policy while predicting a Chinese attack. Charles W. Freeman, who served as U.S. ambassador to China and has known Yates for many years, puts him in the same category as former Defense Department officials Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, who “all saw China as the solution to ‘enemy deprivation syndrome.’”

    And there’s this:

    For the Cheneyites, Middle East policy is tied to China, and in their view China’s appetite for oil makes it a strategic competitor to the United States in the Persian Gulf region. Thus, they regard the control of the Gulf as a zero-sum game. They believe that the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. military buildup in Central Asia, the invasion of Iraq, and the expansion of the U.S. military presence in the Gulf states have combined to check China’s role in the region. In particular, the toppling of Saddam Hussein and the creation of a pro-American regime in Baghdad was, for at least 10 years before 2003, a top neoconservative goal, one that united both the anti-China crowd and far-right supporters of Israel’s Likud. Both saw the invasion of Iraq as the prelude to an assault on neighboring Iran.”

  • So Chaney falls asleep and joins MSM, does anybody rememeber when Quayle ruined his rep by mispelling a word? He would be the smartest guy ini this admin. Where is the press that brought us Potatoe?

  • Hu’s gotta be standing there thinkin’,

    “And for this, I spend ONE BILLION DOLLARS every day in T-Bills.

    A buck just aint worth $hit anymore!”

  • Within the past hour, the heckler was charged with intimidating a foreign official.
    When I first heard her screaming about torture, I though she was yelling at Bush.
    How different are Bush and Hu anyway?

  • Good. Hu Jintao deserves to be offended. And the idea of President Bush profusely apologizing to the brutal dictator of China for an American having the gall to speak openly about their own political beliefs… is even more offensive to me. The fact that this woman is now being charged with crimes is unspeakably pathetic and a definite loss for the 1st Amendment.

    I seriously doubt any of these slights were deliberately orchestrated — the administration is too inept for such subtle digs — but they were well earned regardless, and if the administration did engage in such insult-driven diplomacy, then good for them; it’s one of the best foreign policy moves they’ve made so far in their much regrettable six years in office.

    And to the person who suggests that we should have our president humbly placate every controlling whim of the Chinese dictator due to his desire to conquer Taiwan and China’s possession of nukes: that’s EXACTLY the wrong tack to be taking.

    America should be standing up for Taiwan due to the fact that Taiwain is a liberal democratic nation with a support of human rights, social liberties, and economic freedoms, and because China wishes to conquer that nation and take away its democratic traditions and its freedoms.

    We should not tiptoe before China and acquiesce on its desire to intimidate America over Taiwan, just because it has nuclear weapons. America should be stating in abundant clarity that the use of nuclear weapons against Taiwan is not acceptable. And guess what? I’d be willing to bet you money that Taiwan’s got nuclear weapons, too (it’s common knowledge that they were researching nukes for defense, and they’ve got the money to procure such weaponry). If nothing else, I doubt China will play the nuke card just because Taiwan can certainly retaliate in kind.

    It’s in America’s interests to demonstrate resolve on Taiwan if for no other reason than that, simply, if Taiwan feels its back is against a corner and a Chinese attack is iminent and no American assistance is forthcoming, then the nuclear card is on the table for them as a feasible line of defense. That shouldn’t be something we want.

  • Thank you for your comments, jbryan. I totally agree. Taiwan is in a very precarious situation.

  • Uh, jbryan, I do understand and appreciate your sentiments about Taiwan. But here in the real world China owns our debt. Our government is so lacking in revenue that to finance a defense of Taiwan would require us to go hat in hand to the Chinese! Such is the price when a nation spends beyond its means and goes to elective wars–it is compelled to oblige its creditors in order to keep the party going, meaning that we must neglect our own interests in favor of that of our creditors.

    Another thing–personally, I am tired of our country being (or styling itself as) the World’s Protector of Freedom(tm). Yes, it would suck if China nuked Taiwan. Or invaded it. It sucks that millions of people are dying in the Sudan. North Korea is not a nice place, and neither is Iran. Pakistan is a mess getting ready to become a nightmare. Are we to interfere in it all? With our own nation on the verge of disintegration? With our own military in what looks to be terminal decay after three years of neglect and abuse? With our economy bracing for the next oil shock that everyone knows is coming, but can do nothing about because our government is powerless?

    Can we not spend a little while getting our own house in order before fighting China for the privilege of making Taiwan into our vassal? If Taiwan has nukes, as you say, then it can look after itself. The Chinese are sane, if nothing else.

  • One thing that may be an interesting side story to this is that China will no doubt be able to skillfully parlay these minor indignities into a stronger negotiating hand for any talks. Generalizing, but I believe accurately in light of US China relations last century, the Chinese have a habit of kicking the US’s ass in the diplomatic arts, which can rollover into more substantial policy arenas. Looking at the administration conducting ‘diplomacy’ for the US, I’ll be surprised if Bush doesn’t happily sign Alaska and his dog Barney over to Hu with a formal written apology for the whole sordid ordeal, and then turn around the minute Hu leaves and bomb the shit out of Anartica.

  • Always best to look past what each of our respective leaders says and see how the ties that bind the US and China are working.

    The Bush WH is both deeply indebted to China and fearful of what a more dominant China will do. Bush’s unintentional policies of selling mass quantities of US federal and consumer debt have placed us in danger, and yet, have allowed Bush to do what he wants – wage war in Iraq and maybe Iran. Plus he knows his base (the very, very rich) will require that more US jobs, and industries be outsourced to China, again a dangerous policy, but one which Bush will not stop, or even attempt to slow down. He, at best, views China as a great source of cheap trinkets to appease the masses, and both a new market and cheap labor for his bases’s large companies. China’s own record of human rights or religious freedoms is the least of his concerns other than the occasional lip service.

    China wants our current relationship to continue for as long as possible. They crave stability and access to the resources they need. Their economy has benefited immensely from the infusion of foreign cash and technology. Soon they hope to convert this new power into a bigger say in who gets what’s left of the world’s resources. They are taking a long term strategy and are succeeding.

    The irony here is that each wants part of what the other already has in spades. Bush’s own ideas about how to “secure” the US basically strip us of our rights and morals and make us look a little more like China every day. Hu wants to mimick the magic of US innovation and technology without fundamentally becoming a more free country. The danger here is that Bush has no policy or plan to counter China’s rise (other than telling them to get their hands out of the cookie jar) where as the Chinese have a plan and are sticking to it.

    Someday with the way things are going, Taiwan will re-unite with China and they will do it because it’s in their best interests to do so. The Bush WH? Well, they just don’t think that far ahead.

  • I’m reminded of some advice my father gave me. ‘When the banker comes to the house make sure the dog doesn’t piss on his leg.’

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