Incident in Hangzhou
U.S. President Barack Obama at the 11th East Asia Summit. (Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images)
The
president of the United States lands with all the majesty of Air Force
One, waiting to exit the front door and stride down the rolling
staircase to the red-carpeted tarmac. Except that there is
no rolling staircase. He is forced to exit — as
one China expert put it rather undiplomatically — through “the ass” of the plane.
This
happened Saturday at Hangzhou airport. Yes, in China. If the Chinese
didn’t invent diplomatic protocol, they surely are its most venerable
and experienced practitioners. They’ve been at it for 4,000 years. They
are the masters of every tributary gesture, every nuance of hierarchical
ritual. In a land so exquisitely sensitive to protocol, rolling
staircases don’t just disappear at arrival ceremonies. Indeed, not one
of the other G-20 world leaders was left stranded on his plane upon
arrival.
Did President Xi Jinping directly order airport
personnel and diplomatic functionaries to deny President Obama a proper
welcome? Who knows? But the message, whether intentional or not, wasn’t
very subtle. The authorities expressed no regret, no remorse and
certainly no apology. On the contrary, they
scolded the media for even reporting the snub.
No
surprise. China’s ostentatious rudeness was perfectly reflective of the
world’s general disdain for Obama. His high-minded lectures about
global norms and demands that others live up to their “international
obligations” are no longer amusing. They’re irritating.
Foreign
leaders have reciprocated by taking this administration down a notch
knowing they pay no price. In May 2013, Vladimir Putin reportedly kept
the U.S. secretary of state cooling his heels
for three hours
outside his office before deigning to receive him. Even as Obama was
hailing the nuclear deal with Iran as a great breakthrough,
the ayatollah vowed
“no change” in his policy, which remained diametrically opposed to
“U.S. arrogant system.” The mullahs followed by openly conducting
illegal
ballistic missile tests
— calculating, correctly, that Obama would do nothing. And when Iran
took prisoner 10 American sailors in the Persian Gulf, made them kneel
and broadcast the video, what was the U.S. response? Upon their release,
John Kerry
publicly thanked Iran for its good conduct.
Why should Xi treat Obama with any greater deference? Beijing
illegally expands into the South China Sea, meeting only the most
perfunctory pushback from the U.S.
Obama told CNN that he warned Xi to desist or “there will be consequences.” Is there a threat less credible?
Putin annexes Crimea and Obama crows about the isolation he has imposed on Russia. Look around.
Moscow has become
Grand Central Station for Middle East leaders seeking outside help in
their various conflicts. As for Ukraine, both the French president and
the German chancellor have hastened to Moscow to plead with Putin to
make peace. Some isolation.
Iran
regularly harasses
our vessels in the Persian Gulf. Russian fighters buzzed a U.S.
destroyer in the Baltic Sea. And just Wednesday, a Russian fighter flew
within 10 feet of an American military jet. The price they paid? Being
admonished that such provocations are unsafe and unprofessional. An OSHA
citation is more ominous.
Add to that American acquiescence not just to ransoming hostages held by Iran, but to
delivering the loot
by unmarked plane filled with stacks of cold (untraceable) cash, like a
desert drug deal. Why the stealth? Obviously to conceal the manner of
the transaction from Congress and the American public. Some humiliations
are so grotesque that even the Obama team can’t miss it.
Now the latest. At the G-20, Obama
said he spoke
to Putin about cyberwarfare, amid revelations that Russian hackers have
been interfering in our political campaigns. We are more
technologically advanced, both offensively and defensively, in this
arena than any of our adversaries, said Obama, but we really don’t want
another Cold War-style arms race.
