Yeah, We've Been Avoiding Blogging About President Hu's Visit to the White House
"Gesundheit!" And is that a sister trying to shut up the protestor?
Not really sure we have much to say about the big news story of the day, President Hu Jintao's visit to the White House. Nuclear armageddon and human rights violations don't lend themselves that easily to knee-slapping, gut-busting laughter.
The two presidents met in the Oval Office for a while and talked about lots of Big Issues -- nuclear proliferation, trade, Taiwan -- but announced no new agreements. The most interesting aspect of the visit was the welcome ceremony on the South Lawn. As President Bush spoke, with a translator providing translation every few sentences, we were struck by how it takes way longer to say stuff in Chinese than in English.
President Hu then started speaking. From the press podium, protester Wenyi Wang -- no relation to Ziyi Zhang -- began shouting about China's persecution of the Falun Gong. Some of her shouts, in both English and Chinese, included "Stop the torture and killings!", "Falun Dafa is good!", and "I ain't no hollaback girl!" (that one was in Chinese).
A few more random observations appear after the jump .
It took a surprisingly long time for security officers to remove Wang from the podium. While she was shouting, President Bush looked both angry and embarrassed. He told President Hu, who had paused awkwardly in the middle of his remarks, "You're OK." President Hu then continued, with the woman shouting in the background.
It was mildly amusing to see early press reports describing Wang, in politically correct fashion, as "a woman who appeared to be Asian." Uh, thanks guys.
A special message to Wang from a Wonkette reader: "Hey Heckler -- did you read about our secret rendition program where we make people disappear? Oh, you didn't? That's too bad. Now you get to meet the ninjas. Try hecking those bastards. Human rights was so 80's-when we were trying to defeat the commies. Now we want their money."
Bush Urges China to Help Resolve Iran, North Korea Disputes [WP]