What did that shameless, dishonest groveling at the feet of the Chinese dictatorship accomplish? The answer is apparently nothing. When Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the adversarial nation on Sunday to hold more fruitless talks, the CCP immediately set out to embarrass the Biden administration.

Is this how this entire trip is going to go?

DaiWW @BeijingDai
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Blinken lands in China. No red carpet, no greeting party and no high level CPC officals.
9:19 PM · Jun 17, 2023 //

When high-ranking diplomats (and there is no higher ranking than Blinken) visit other countries, it is an act of tradition and respect to roll out the red carpet. It’s also customary for that person’s foreign counterpart, usually the one he’ll be negotiating with, to be in attendance to greet said diplomat and escort them to the meeting place or where they are staying. In this case, Blinken was met with a low-ranking official while given essentially zero pomp and circumstance, and the reason China snubbed him isn’t exactly a mystery.

As it stands, the CCP sees Biden as weak and ineffective. Not surprisingly, that’s because the president is weak and ineffective. His prostration before Xi Jinping on Saturday, defending China’s aggression with talking points that came straight out of Beijing (and that his own administration officials have contradicted), has only made the situation worse.