So was it a success or a wash? President George W. Bush huddled with China’s visiting President Hu Jintao hu who was heckled.
President Bush pressed China’s visiting President Hu Jintao yesterday to open up markets, expand freedom and do more to curb nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea but came away with no specific agreements in a summit emphasizing symbolism over breakthroughs.
Hosting the first White House visit of a Chinese president in nine years, Bush welcomed Hu with pageantry, marching bands and a 21-gun salute in a sun-splashed South Lawn ceremony, then escorted him inside for polite talks on a range of long-standing issues. In return, Hu offered vague assurances that he will address U.S. economic concerns while resisting tougher action on Iran and North Korea.
The one off-script moment in an otherwise meticulously choreographed day came when a member of the Falun Gong religious sect that is suppressed in China screamed at Hu for several long minutes as he addressed hundreds of Bush aides and ticketed guests on the lawn.
“President Hu! Your days are numbered,” she shouted. “President Bush! Stop him from killing!” A startled Hu paused until Bush leaned over and encouraged him to continue. “You’re okay,” Bush assured Hu.
You can watch the video of The Heckling Seen Round The World here.
The question then becomes: did this version of “I’m OK, You’re OK” smooth over any ruffled feathers?
The New York Times suggests that it didn’t quite do the trick.
Mr. Bush later apologized to Mr. Hu for the incident, White House officials said. But Chinese Foreign Ministry officials traveling with Mr. Hu canceled an afternoon briefing. One delegation member, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject publicly, described his superiors as outraged by the breach.
Compounding the gaffe, a White House announcer introducing the national anthems at the same ceremony mistakenly referred to China as the Republic of China, which is the formal name of its archrival, Taiwan. Mainland China is the People’s Republic of China. China treats American support for Taiwan, a separately governed island that China claims as its sovereign territory, as the biggest irritant in bilateral relations. Even minuscule changes in the wording of diplomatic statements on the subject are often viewed as transformative on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
It could have been worse. The announcer could have called it “The People’s Republic of Chinatown.”
But Hu’s apparent ire is understandable.
Hu doesn’t understand that in a democracy elected leaders often may find themselves face to face with irate members of the public who vociferously exercise their free speech — unless it’s at Presidential re-election campaign appearances in 2004 when GOP operatives sometimes weeded out and ejected ahead of time some people believed to be not agreeing with the President or his policies.
Meanwhile, the People’s Daily Online added this tidbit:
SEATTLE: President Hu Jintao has urged the United States not to politicize trade disputes, emphasizing that China’s fast growth provides tremendous commercial potential.
“China’s development will present enormous business opportunities to the United States and other countries,” he told a Wednesday luncheon in Seattle attended by about 600 business leaders and government officials.
He said opportunities are in nuclear energy, natural gas and energy conservation. “China has a huge market and a strong demand for America’s advanced technologies and management expertise.”
Hu noted that China’s annual economic growth averaged 9.6 per cent during the last 27 years and the country has drawn in foreign direct investment of US$620 billion.
On trade frictions between China and the United States, he said: “We should properly address these problems through consultation and dialogue on an equal footing.”
Differences should not be politicized, he stressed.
The president also asked the United States to ease export controls on high-tech goods and eliminate protectionist measures.
Hu’s visit comes amid simmering trade disputes between the two countries, ranging from China’s trade surplus and its currency exchange regime to US companies’ access to the Chinese market.
So what came out of it in substantive terms?
It’s likely too early to tell. The Chicago Tribune, for example, judges the meeting ” mostly ceremonial.”
The AP aimed for balance in its piece:
President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to cooperate more closely on trade and nuclear tensions over Iran and North Korea but failed to break new ground Thursday toward resolving a host of differences. Their meeting was marred by a protest, which Bush later expressed regret to Hu for.
No breakthroughs had been expected during Hu’s first visit to the White House as the president of China. And both he and Bush acknowledged at a picture-taking session that much work remained to be done and that the two sides would strive for progress in these areas.
The BBC saw the wreckage of protocol as symbolic. In its report, it first notes how things seemed to be going so well for the Chinese President and his trip but “it then all unravelled” with using the wrong name for Hu’s country and the loud protester:
But to have their president’s speech interrupted by not just a protester, but one from the banned quasi-religious group Falun Gong, would have been difficult to swallow.
In Beijing, television screens showing the BBC and CNN went to black as the cameras focussed on Wang Wenyi shouting out “President Hu, your days are numbered”.
President Bush apologised to his Chinese guest for this unfortunate incident – but it showed the gulf that remains between these two countries.
The Falun Gong protester was only reflecting a wider disgust in Washington over China’s human rights record….
…Republicans and Democrats are worried about the growing trade imbalance.
The Bush administration wants China to play a more active role in confronting the threat from Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programme.
President Hu may in the end feel he got what he came for – a show of respect from the world’s only superpower for the new kid on the block.
But discussions between the two leaders failed to produce anything concrete and the United States is still uncertain as to whether China will live up to its challenge of becoming a “responsible stakeholder” in the international community.
Relations may have improved – but there is still a lack of trust.
That one protester may have done everyone a favour by reminding us that China and America – whatever their common interests – are still polls apart.
Hu would have guessed it?
MUST READ:
It’s now an Internet cliche but, if you haven’t read it yet, be sure to CLICK HERE and read playwright Jim Sherman’s “Hu’s On First” comedy routine based on THIS CLASSIC BASEBALL COMEDY ROUTINE by the great comedy team Abbott and Costello.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.