“There is no reason that China and the United States can not be friendly competitors on the commercial side and important partners when it comes to dealing with the many global problems that threaten the two countries”, Obama said.
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As Obama was preparing to attend the G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, US officials balked at requiring President Obama to use a staircase provided by the Chinese to disembark his airplane instead of the set of rolling stairs flown in by the US, leading some to wonder if the gesture was simple oversight or a subtle sign of disrespect. The South China Post also reported the stairs were American, claiming that because the driver of the rolling staircase did not speak English, the US opted to use its own mechanisms for the president to exit the plane.
Meanwhile, Putin’s grander red-carpet entrance was compared to Obama’s experience, fueling speculation that China purposefully snubbed the American President’s entrance. “Part of it is we also have a much bigger footprint than a lot of other countries”.
Trump was referring to the reported snub that Obama received from Chinese leaders at the G20 summit in Beijing, where the latter was not provided a staircase upon touching down from his plane.
He Weiwen, a former economic counsellor at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco and NY agreed with the Chinese official, saying: “Sino-US relations are so important to China, and there’s absolutely no logic in creating trouble or to downgrade treatment for the US president”.
Obama noted China has been run during his lifetime by a Communist party that has been “much more anti-Western” in the past. Obama’s National Security Advisor Susan Rice also had a spat with a Chinese official who stopped her as she crossed a media rope line and walked toward the United States motorcade.
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Trump took offense to the treatment. You see that? They have pictures of other leaders who are … coming down with a lovely red carpet. “And Obama is coming down a metal staircase”, Trump said in Ohio.
