Joe Biden’s recent trip to China is turning into a farce as petty diplomatic incidents erupt in Beijing. A Chinese basketball team playing a “friendly” match with Georgetown literally beat down and stomped American players over a disputed foul, forcing the Americans to cut the game short to beat an ignominious retreat under a hail of missiles hurled by patriotic Chinese fans. At one of Biden’s speeches, Chinese officials told reporters to leave before he finished, and when American reporters objected beefy Chinese guards started shoving them around.
Only minutes into Biden’s remarks, Chinese officials had begun to direct reporters toward the exits. Most reporters and the vice president’s staff objected, saying it was important to cover the entirety of Biden’s opening statement, as had been the agreement between officials beforehand.
[...]
Soon the stern shooing turned into forceful shoving. As reporters tried to stand their ground, Chinese officials locked arms and pushed forward in a show of overwhelming force. Soon enough Biden did finish, but reporters had difficulty hearing the entire thing because of the fisticuffs.
Hours later, Biden held another meeting with the chair of the National People’s Congress, Wu Bangguo. And again, Chinese officials attempted to force reporters from the room even as Biden was still speaking.
Though there would not be the kind of physical interaction as in the earlier meeting, the vice president’s staff was not pleased with their Chinese counterparts, who they felt were showing disrespect to the office and to the country.
Recently, the American press was singing the praises of Gary Locke, former governor of Washington state and Chinese-American ambassador to China, because the Chinese were impressed by the fact that he carried his own luggage at the airport. Of course, what they don’t mention is that Locke is favored by Chinese in large part because of his Chinese ethnicity, which is why he probably shouldn’t be the ambassador to China. Locke will be favored over other Americans, and Chinese will assume that his true allegiance and duty is to China — this is entirely normal in a civilization that simply doesn’t operate on the Western premise of multiculturalism. It is also why Locke gets special treatment and praise while other Americans get beat up.
The basketball brawl was quite a spectacle. It was clearly instigated by the Chinese players, who started slapping one of the Hoyas around. This cleared the benches, and then the Chinese team and spectators proceeded to give the Americans a beatdown.
See for yourself:
This level of disrespect is far beyond the pale, and must be sanctioned by higher-ups in China, if not in word in spirit. When I lived in Beijing, there were occasionally political incidents between the US and China which the PRC government would use as an excuse to whip up nationalist, anti-American hysteria. Sometimes it would get pretty ugly. Following the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade (allegedly by mistake) a mob tried to storm the embassy in Beijing, and another torched the US consular residence in Chengdu right about when I left in ’99. But engaging in this behavior during an official visit, absent any violent provocation, is different.
China’s government is facing some very serious problems, and is trying to shove blame onto the US — a common tactic over there. But given the economic situation and the mutual reliance between the US and China, this renewed acrimony does not bode well for either country. It looks like relations are set to deteriorate for some time, and the US is going to face more collection calls from the Chinese.
