After she bowed three times when meeting China’s vice premier in Beijing last weekend, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was roundly criticized by diplomatic observers and China experts.
“Never, ever, ever,” is what former George W. Bush administration official Bradley Blakeman said about the now-infamous diplomatic faux pas, in comments to the New York Post. It’s not “part of the accepted protocol,” said Jerome Cohen, the renowned NYU professor and China scholar, for the same piece. The German Marshall Fund’s Bonnie Glaser said on Twitter that U.S. officials might need a briefing on protocol: “I hope someone will tell American officials that they should stand straight when they shake hands with Chinese officials.”
But Yellen’s bow did receive good reviews from one unsurprising place, the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times propaganda outlet, which responded to Glaser’s criticism:
#Comment:
Since when has the mighty American empire started to pay so much attention on this kind of tiny detail?
Since when have some Americans found it hard to tolerate a US official showing respect and politeness?
Is that because the US has had its nose stuck up for so long?… https://t.co/3yzgI0Bl3f— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) July 10, 2023
Its defense of Yellen’s bows read: “Since when have some Americans found it hard to tolerate a U.S. officials showing respect and politeness? Is that because the U.S. has had its nose stuck up for so long?”
If, as the Global Times puts it, Washington “has had its nose stuck up for so long,” that’s no longer the case. Three bows is a gaffe. But sending three high-level officials to Beijing in quick succession, without any meetings in a different location, sends a similar message.