Vice President Joe Biden set off a brawl Thursday morning between the press and Chinese officials by giving a speech that some officials felt was going on too long.
At the end of the meeting between China’s Vice President Xi Jingping, Biden followed Xi’s remarks with a speech of his own. Before Biden had completed his speech, a “larger Chinese official” tried to shoo reporters out of the room.
“Stern shooing turned into forceful shoving,” pool reporter Michael Memoli wrote for the Los Angeles Times. “As reporters tried to stand their ground, Chinese officials locked arms and pushed forward in a show of overwhelming force.”
“Officials said Biden was going on too long, though he at that point had not spoken for more than 5-6 minutes, including the consecutive translation,” according to the pool report.
The “fisticuffs” made it difficult for reporters to hear the speech. They gave up trying when it became apparent that Biden was finishing up.
Chinese officials tried to clear the room early at a second event Thursday, though the pool report doesn’t suggest any altercation there.
Memoli noted that reporters and staff said they had never witnessed that level of “aggressive force” at such an event, though reporters had been warned in advance about the potential for aggressive behavior from their Chinese hosts.
Before Biden had sat down for talks with Xi he was given an honor-guard welcoming ceremony. Ahead of the talks Biden said “there is no more important relationship… than a close relationship with China.” He added that “the economic stability of the world rests in no small part on cooperation between the United States and China.”
Reports of Biden’s trip had emphasized that he would seek to provide reassurances about the health of the U.S. economy and seek to get a better read on Xi, who will become the head of the Chinese Communist Party late next year as a prelude to taking over Hu’s post as China’s President in March of 2013. He will be making a reciprocal visit to Washington later this year.
After the morning meeting with Xi, Biden went out to a Beijing noodle restaurant for a snack with his granddaughter Naomi, who is studying Chinese, and new U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke. Biden’s group ordered noodles with special soybean paste, steamed buns and other appetizers, according to the Beijing U.S. embassy’s official microblog which broadcast the vice president’s trip online.
Biden stopped short of ordering chao gan, the restaurant’s popular specialty of pork liver and intestines served in a broth.
“The meetings were great. But it’s harder to order,” Biden joked to reporters when asked about his talks.
Biden apologized to the patrons in the restaurant for the commotion caused by their arrival.
“You came in for a quiet lunch and I show up,” AFP quoted him as saying.
China’s Internet users contrasted Biden’s folksy ways with those of Chinese officials who tend to be serious with the public.
“A meal at a local restaurant shows Biden’s personality and his desire and efforts to be close to the Chinese public,” said Tao Wenzhao, a researcher at the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
“Politicians usually visit schools and institutes, but Biden chose to go where ordinary people go. Judging from online comments, some Web users really like him. Deliberately or not, Biden’s move won over the Chinese public to some extent.”
On Friday Biden will meet with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao before heading to Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan Province, with Xi on Saturday. There Biden will deliver a speech at one of the sites devastated by the major earthquake in 2008.
