US President Barack Obama has tried to downplay a row between US and
Chinese officials upon his arrival in China for the G20 Summit, saying
the incident should not be overblown.
Obama's last scheduled trip to China before leaving office got off to
an awkward start on Saturday soon after Air Force One landed in the
eastern city of Hangzhou, where leaders of the world's top economies are
convening.
After the plane parked on the tarmac, a Chinese official attempted to
prevent US national security adviser Susan Rice from walking to Obama's
motorcade as she crossed a media rope line, speaking angrily to her
before a US Secret Service agent stepped between the two.
Rice responded but her comments were inaudible to journalists standing underneath the wing of Air Force One.
It was unclear if the official, whose identity was not immediately
clear, knew that Rice was a senior official and not a journalist. The
same official shouted at a White House press aide who was instructing
foreign reporters on where to stand as they recorded Obama disembarking
from the plane.
"This is our country. This is our airport," the official said in English, pointing and speaking angrily with the aide.
Al Jazeera's Adrian Brown, reporting from Hangzhou, said it was "a curious incident" as China has tried everything to pull off a trouble-free G20 summit, its highest profile event of the year.
"It has millions of volunteers on hand and it has spent $100m on the
venue where the G20 Summit is going to be taking place," Brown said. "It
is what happens when you have this sort of regimented and in many ways
stifling security we currently have here in Hangzhou."
Chinese airport officials at first also declined to provide Air Force One with airport steps on the tarmac upon its arrival.
"Eventually a set of steps were found. Apparently there was a
mechanical problem with the first set of steps. But the real problem
came when the US officials got involved in the altercation with that
Chinese official on the tarmac," Brown said.
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