Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is being severely criticized for bowing multiple times to a Chinese official during her recent trip to Beijing.
Yellen bowed at least three times during a photo op handshake with Vice Premier He Lifeng, China’s top economic official, according to the New York Post
“Never, ever, ever,” said Bradley Blakeman, a White House aide under former President George W. Bush.
“An American official does not bow. It looks like she’s been summoned to the principal’s office, and that’s exactly the optics the Chinese love.”
“The way to treat an adversary is, you don’t go hat in hand. But with this administration, time and time again, we embarrass ourselves and show weakness. And it just shows the lack of effective leverage we have,” he continued.
“Bowing is not part of the accepted protocol,” said Jerome A. Cohen, an emeritus professor at New York University with expertise in Chinese law and government.
The Post noted that as Yellen spoke of coexisting with China, 13 People’s Liberation Army aircraft and six ships went into the airspace and waters near Taiwan, which China claims should rightfully be a part of the communist nation.
He said the United States must bear the blame for the distance between t
Although Yellen said that talking was a positive step, the trip produced no agreements, according to The New York Times.
e two nations.
“We wish the U.S. side would take a rational and practical attitude, meet with the Chinese side half-way, make joint efforts with China in maintaining the consensus reached between the two state leaders in their meeting in Bali, and put the positive remarks into actions, so as to stabilize and improve the China-U.S. relations,” he said, according to Fox News.