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U.S. President Barack Obama at the 11th East Asia Summit.
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Obama’s
humiliation in China is a sign of global disdain for the president.
Incident in
Hangzhou
By Charles Krauthammer Opinion writer September 8
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.
Instead, we must all adhere to norms of international behavior.
Related
Posts:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/incident-in-hangzhou/2016/09/08/c1da28f4-75f2-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html?postshare=1321473446227252&tid=ss_fb&utm_term=.c75fb27cd2ee
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