Ah yes, diplomacy, George W. Bushie style. And we are back to that old question: Is the fate of our country in the hands of incompetent fools or intentionally stupid fools?
Whichever it is, it involves the inability or unwillingness to do a Nexis search (see below).
Pasted below are snippets of media coverage from three sources, all testifying to the slights or insults bestowed upon China by our dear leader, the always and forever strutting Cock-In-Chief.
Good thing we don't owe these people any money!
"President George W. Bush pulls on the suit coat of China's President Hu Jintao to prevent him from stepping off the platform after making remarks today during a welcoming ceremony at the White House." [Mary F. Calvert (THE WASHINGTON TIMES)]
Fortunately for Bushie, he wasn't yanking on the clothing of Cynthia McKinney. Gawd, I wish he'd try it!
[T]he Chinese, ever sensitive to questions of status, made clear they felt slighted by Mr. Bush's decision not to offer up a full state dinner for the leader of 1.3 billion people; instead, Mr. Hu got lunch. And in return, Mr. Bush got vague promises that China would continue doing what it is already doing — at its own pace.
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 Taiwan. It continued when Vice President Cheney 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. China 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.
But as protocol breaches go, it's hard to top the heckling of a foreign leader at the White House. Explaining the incident -- the first disruption at the executive mansion in recent memory -- White House and Secret Service officials said she was "a legitimate journalist" and that there was nothing suspicious in her background. In other words: Who knew?
Hu did. The Chinese had warned the White House to be careful about who was admitted to the ceremony. To no avail: They granted a one-day pass to Wang Wenyi of the Falun Gong publication Epoch Times. A quick Nexis search shows that in 2001, she slipped through a security cordon in Malta protecting Jiang (she had been denied media credentials) and got into an argument with him.
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