Hu Jintao Visit: A Diplomatic Fiasco; Bush Raises Refugee Issue

The meeting, the first at the White House between the men since Mr. Hu became China’s top leader in 2002, was plagued by gaffes that upended months of painstaking diplomacy over protocol and staging.

For millions of Americans, and for unknown numbers of Chinese able to penetrate the Great Firewall, the enduring image of Hu Jintao’s visit will not be the 21-gun salute he got, or the full state dinner he did not get, but the face of this Falun Gong protestor, Epoch Times press pass in hand, who spent nearly a full minute haranguing the Chinese dicator. Hu, a stolid and humorless man, was visibly jarred by confronting a citizen who dared express her discontent. The experience appears to have been a new one for Hu. Via the Washington Post:

“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.

No wonder some of the papers described the incident has having lasted more than one minute. It must have seemed eternal. Awkward, to say the least. The White House later apologized, which I suppose was obligatory, but the damage was done. The Chinese, probably projecting, presume the existence of deceit.

(Having sneaked into a couple of allegedly secure events myself, I can verify that “secure” events often aren’t, although a minute is admittedly a long damn time to heckle a dictator. Some kind of record may have been set.)

It does not end there, reports the NY Times.

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.

Ouch.

On North Korea, the Post reports:

In private, aides said, Bush raised the case of a North Korean asylum seeker, Kim Chun Hee, who was deported back to her homeland despite Chinese obligations under U.N. refugee conventions. He asked again about a list of Chinese political prisoners that he first gave Hu during a meeting at the United Nations in September and gave a new list of six detainees he hopes will be released. But Bush did not mention the persecution of Falun Gong, even with hundreds of its followers outside the White House banging drums, holding up banners and chanting, “Stop the killing, stop the torture.”

… as foreshadowed by James’s post of the other day. Indications that Hu will respond constructively: zero. The LA Times adds more, mostly on North Korea’s ongoing refusal to show up for nuclear talks. Nobody seems to have walked away happy, and with a determined new U.S. policy taking shape, U.S. officials suggest hearts and minds aren’t the regions where the vise will squeeze. China appears unwilling to help; the United States appears willing to proceed anyway.

[It] was clear that Hu left Bush unsatisfied on his request for help to restrain the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

Bush told reporters that in his Oval Office meeting with Hu, he had asked the Chinese president to use his leverage to win greater cooperation from neighboring North Korea, which has refused to rejoin stalled six-nations talks on its nuclear program.

On North Korea, Hu pointed out to Bush that the government in Pyongyang was unhappy with “defensive steps” the United States had taken to try to halt the regime’s alleged counterfeiting of U.S. currency and alleged drug trafficking.

“I hope the parties will be able to further display flexibility, work together and create the necessary conditions for the early resumption of talks,” Hu said.

Derek Mitchell, who was a senior advisor on Asia at the Pentagon during the Clinton administration, said he doubted the visit would mollify those in Congress who were unhappy with China.

“What they respond to is action,” said Mitchell, now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “The commitment to economic reform that Hu made on the lawn won’t have any effect unless action follows it.”

As much as I’d like to think this series of disasters really was churlishness by miffed U.S. officials, my gut tells me this was really a case study in amateurish diplomacy.