Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made two diplomatic mistakes Saturday when she greeted the Chinese side of the Treasury, according to the New York Post.
First, Yellen repeatedly bowed to Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, but the vice premier did not respond to the gesture. according to to video of the event. Soon after, Ms. Yellen made up Ms. Lifeng’s name and called her diplomatic partner “Vice Premier Hu.” according to to the New York Post.
The newspaper said Yellen bowed at least three times, and Tatemine stepped back slightly to give President Joe Biden’s business leaders more room to bow. Yellen is the latest senior Biden administration official to visit China to defuse escalating tensions between world powers.
“Never, never, never,” Bradley Blakeman, a former senior staff member of the George W. Bush administration, told the Post of Yellen’s gesture. “American officials don’t bow her head. She seems to have been summoned to the principal’s office, but she is exactly the optics the Chinese like.” (Related: US Embassy Chorus Plays China’s National Anthem ‘Soulfully’ at Independence Day Event in Beijing)
Jerome Cohen, professor emeritus at New York University and an expert on Chinese law and government, told the Post of the incident that “bowing is not part of the accepted etiquette.”
State Department protocol does not encourage diplomats to bow to foreign officials. according to To ABC News.
Reporter: “President says we are competing with China. He has been in office for 28 months. Are we winning?”
Jean-Pierre: “We are in a place where the president has created an economy that he wants to work for everyone.”
That’s a great answer to a question that no one asked. pic.twitter.com/pje3n5VQPu
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 5, 2023
“The way to deal with an enemy is to hold hands and not act,” Blakeman added. “However, in this administration, we have been shamed and shown weakness many times, and it shows the lack of effective leverage that we have. I am just showing you.”
As part of her pitch to China, Yellen tried to convince the leadership of the world’s most polluting country to do more to tackle climate change.
“I strongly believe that our bilateral relationship is rooted in the strong ties between the United States and China,” Yellen said in her opening remarks. “It’s important to continue to nurture and deepen these bonds.”
The blunder comes as China retaliates against U.S. export controls on computer chips by imposing its own export controls on key minerals used to produce a number of critical technologies. Chinese Communist Party officials warned Wednesday that mineral export restrictions are “only the beginning” if Washington continues to restrict access to key Chinese products. according to to Reuters.
China’s Xi Jinping promoted Lifeng to his current position in March 2023.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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