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Apparently nobody bothered to tell the Chinese that Mooch has been upgraded to queen status.
Via Telegraph:
It had been hoped that this weekend’s crucial summit between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping at a Californian ranch might inject a new warmth into US-China relations.
However, those hopes suffered an early setback on Wednesday when the White House announced that Michelle Obama would not be joining her husband in attending the two-day meeting with China’s new president and his wife.
Her office cited domestic responsibilities for not attending – it is the last week of the school year for the Obamas’ daughters Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11, – but the move leaves China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan, to attend the summit without her American counterpart.
China experts immediately warned that Mrs Obama’s decision to stay in Washington could have an unwelcome chilling effect on a summit that White House officials have billed as an “unprecedented” opportunity to heal divisions between the world two biggest economies.
Her absence is likely to limit Ms Peng’s role at the two-day California meeting and may be interpreted by the face-conscious Chinese bureaucrats and public as a deliberate snub, both US and Chinese analysts said.
The Chinese public had hoped that their country’s first lady would dazzle the American public during this summit at the Sunnylands ranch in Palm Springs which opens on Friday and in which both sides have trumpeted as a bid to kick-start more constructive relations.
Zhang Ming, a political scientist from China’s Renmin University, predicted Mrs Obama’s absence would “not go down very well” in Beijing.
“First lady diplomacy is also very important and the US side has failed to cooperate,” he said. “According to normal diplomatic etiquette this is very strange. It shouldn’t be like this.
Via Telegraph:
It had been hoped that this weekend’s crucial summit between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping at a Californian ranch might inject a new warmth into US-China relations.
However, those hopes suffered an early setback on Wednesday when the White House announced that Michelle Obama would not be joining her husband in attending the two-day meeting with China’s new president and his wife.
Her office cited domestic responsibilities for not attending – it is the last week of the school year for the Obamas’ daughters Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11, – but the move leaves China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan, to attend the summit without her American counterpart.
China experts immediately warned that Mrs Obama’s decision to stay in Washington could have an unwelcome chilling effect on a summit that White House officials have billed as an “unprecedented” opportunity to heal divisions between the world two biggest economies.
Her absence is likely to limit Ms Peng’s role at the two-day California meeting and may be interpreted by the face-conscious Chinese bureaucrats and public as a deliberate snub, both US and Chinese analysts said.
The Chinese public had hoped that their country’s first lady would dazzle the American public during this summit at the Sunnylands ranch in Palm Springs which opens on Friday and in which both sides have trumpeted as a bid to kick-start more constructive relations.
Zhang Ming, a political scientist from China’s Renmin University, predicted Mrs Obama’s absence would “not go down very well” in Beijing.
“First lady diplomacy is also very important and the US side has failed to cooperate,” he said. “According to normal diplomatic etiquette this is very strange. It shouldn’t be like this.
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