The official narrative is that the trip was supposed to be a diplomatic triumph for Obama highlighted by the worthless climate deal (though quite expensive for the US as usual) with Obama pretending to press China over its expansionism.
But China made sure to humiliate Obama right out of the starting gate. And I do mean gate.
China’s leaders have been accused of delivering a calculated diplomatic snub to Barack Obama after the US president was denied a red-carpet welcome during his chaotic arrival in Hangzhou ahead of the start of the G20.
Chinese authorities have rolled out the red carpet for leaders including India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, Russian president Vladimir Putin, South Korean president Park Geun-hye, Brazil’s president Michel Temer and British prime minister Theresa May, who touched down on Sunday morning.
But the leader of the world’s largest economy, who is on his final tour of Asia, was forced to disembark from Air Force One through a little-used exit in the plane’s belly after no rolling staircase was provided when he landed in the eastern Chinese city on Saturday afternoon.
When Obama did find his way onto the tarmac, there were heated altercations between US and Chinese officials, with one Chinese official caught on video shouting: “This is our country! This is our airport!”
Smart power,
“The reception that President Obama and his staff got when they arrived here Saturday afternoon was bruising, even by Chinese standards,” the New York Times reported.
But a little more appeasement should do the trick.
Bill Bishop, a China expert whose Sinocism newsletter tracks the country’s political scene, agreed that Obama’s no-carpet welcome looked suspiciously like a deliberate slight intended “to make the Americans look diminished and weak”.
“It sure looks like a straight up snub,” Bishop said. “This clearly plays very much into the [idea]: ‘Look, we can make the American president go out of the ass of the plane.’”
We can make him do anything as a matter of fact.
Susan Rice, the US national security adviser, admitted she had been surprised by the handling of the president’s arrival. “They did things that weren’t anticipated,”she told reporters.
The New York Times said Rice had appeared “baffled and annoyed” that the president had been forced to leave Air Force One through a door normally reserved for high-security trips to places such as Afghanistan.
Anyone with a serious national security background could have anticipated that Obama's weakness would invite more humiliation.