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Obama snubbed at his arrival in China

When President Obama arrived in China for the G-20 summit, he was not met by any Chinese leaders, was given no red carpet, and had no welcome delegation. In fact, he had to emerge from the plane from the cargo door.

Someone at the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), tweeted a short message that says it all:

A sarcastic tweet aimed at China and posted on the US Defense Intelligence Agency's Twitter account has fuelled a row over protocol at the G20 summit.

The tweet, which was quickly deleted, read: "Classy as always China".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37269719

The DIA quickly deleted the Tweet and Obama himself tried to downplay the incident in order not to be humiliated in public.

When President Barack Obama arrived in Hangzhou there was no red carpet and he had to leave by a different plane exit.

There was also a row on the tarmac when a Chinese official shouted "This is our country!" as reporters and US officials tried to bypass a cordon.

President Obama called on reporters "not to over-crank the significance"….

American reporters who travelled to the summit with President Obama from Hawaii said that Chinese security guards prevented them from watching the president disembark from the belly of the plane - something normally only done on high-security trips to places like Afghanistan - because there was no red carpet welcome…

The South China Morning Post on Sunday reported an official as saying that China provides red carpets to welcome every arriving state leader, "but the US side... turned down the proposal and insisted that they didn't need the staircase provided by the airport".

More tensions between the two sides broke out at the West Lake State House, where Mr Obama met President Xi Jinping.

White House aides, protocol officers and Secret Service agents became embroiled in a row with Chinese officials as to how many Americans should be allowed into the building before Mr Obama's arrival. At one point there were fears the confrontation could become physical, the New York Times reported.

The president pointed out that this was not the first time there had been tension with the Chinese over security and news media access during his travels.

"But this time," he said, "the seams are showing a little more than usual."

There are many ways that countries diplomatically show their disapproval of the actions of foreign leaders. This is probably the most displeasure that China has ever shown to an American president. It shows just how unpopular he is in China, and also how tensions have arisen sharply, though much of it remains unreported.