Behind the glamor of red carpets, military bands, and a state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, the tension between press freedoms in the two nations — and the underlying battle of President Donald Trump’s own war on the media — punctuated Thursday’s White House state visit.
Xi’s 10 a.m. White House arrival on Thursday preceded joint remarks delivered by the two leaders, a full military review complemented by numerous bands and a White House flyover, hours of closed-door bilateral meetings, Trump leading Xi on a personal tour of Marine One and the newly christened White House helipad, and a lavish state dinner in the evening where attendees were treated to sesame-crusted sea bass. The night before, Trump welcomed Xi to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland with a literal, 100-foot-long red carpet, dozens of waving American and Chinese flags, and hundreds of military personnel.
The White House remarks between the two leaders, an otherwise momentous occasion for the superpowers, were not carried live by any of the major television networks as Trump’s media ban of three outlets played out into Thursday morning.
Moreover, the usually chatty Trump did not answer questions as he showed Xi around the White House grounds.
On state visits, it’s typical for a president to adopt the press norms of a visiting dignitary. And, true to form, Trump and his counterpart declined to answer any questions asked by American reporters, despite multiple opportunities.
Furthermore, two separate narratives collided on campus Thursday, further underlining the vast differences in press freedoms between the respective countries.
First, ahead of Xi’s arrival Thursday morning, Chinese reporters and their diplomatic aides scuffled with U.S. Secret Service and White House staffers over what Beijing’s delegation deemed to be unfavorable positioning of their cameras.
The verbal altercation bordered on physical violence, as a Chinese official shoved off the hands of a White House aide seeking to move him into the appropriate position and started shouting at Secret Service agents, just feet away from the Washington Examiner. A Chinese photographer also sprinted across the newly paved South Lawn driveway in hopes of finding a better staging location before being corralled by the Trump administration.
The White House’s in-house photographer eventually calmed the peace by pointing out that even she wasn’t positioned in front of the attending journalists.
“This day will be very long,” the Washington Examiner heard the White House photographer tell the Chinese delegation. “We can do this. No more fighting.”
This isn’t the first time Chinese officials have jostled American journalists and government officials, nor was it the last time it happened on Thursday. Similar incidents occurred during Trump’s previous meetings with Xi, and, again on Thursday, one Chinese photographer bowled over an American female reporter in the White House briefing room while the press pools waited to be let into the Oval Office for a bilateral spray with Trump and Xi.
Print, television, and radio reporters were excluded from the event, but after getting their pictures snapped, Trump joked to Xi that the Chinese reporters were much nicer than their American counterparts.
Second, later in the afternoon, Trump’s own fractious relationship with the press took center stage after the White House consented to a judge’s overnight ruling and allowed CNN, MS Now, and Politico reporters back onto campus.
Though Trump’s media ban, handed down last week, was overturned hours before Xi’s arrival, journalists from those outlets weren’t allowed back onto the grounds until around 1 p.m.
The White House attributed the delay to the need to revert credentialing in the Secret Service database and to redistributing previously confiscated physical credentials back to the respective outlets.
Still, despite the chaos in the press corps, Trump appeared to be flying high throughout the day.
The president briefly interacted with the press while touring Xi around the South Lawn helipad and construction of the White House ballroom.
Trump did not answer questions from the Washington Examiner and other reporters on future weapons transfers to Taiwan, China’s role in the fentanyl epidemic, imprisoned Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, or any other topics.
Instead, he told the press that he and Xi were having a “great meeting” and touted his counterpart’s supposed geological interests.
TRUMP AND XI BRING COMPETING AGENDAS TO SUPERPOWER VISIT
“He’s an expert on stone, aside from many other things,” Trump said with a smile. “And he loves good granite.”