LIMA — A limping President Biden was pushed to the back corner of the APEC summit’s annual family photo — as Chinese President Xi Jinping was honored with a front-and-center position next to the host country’s President Dina Bolourt.
The US leader’s minor insult comes ahead of his Saturday afternoon meeting with Xi – who has been greeted with relative fanfare throughout the event as a thank you for his country’s financing of a huge new port on Peru’s coast .
Biden, 81, whose growing irrelevance domestically and on the world stage has earned him the nickname “Super Lame Duck,” arrived last in a family photo before taking his pre-assigned position among fellow back-row leaders from Thailand and Vietnam .
It’s unclear why exactly Biden was placed in the back row. A review of past APEC family photos shows a variety of positions for US leaders, with Barack Obama and George W Bush also seen in the back at times – although then-President Donald Trump took center stage in a pair of family photos in 2017 Was. APEC summit in Vietnam.
The president-elect, who is expected to re-embrace his strong “America first” posture, has been known to shy away from even symbolic snubs during his tenure – in one instance he spoke to the press in front of a crowd of world leaders. Made my place. Ensure your and America’s place at the forefront.
Biden’s trip so far has included several small insults — including a lavish welcome for Xi and a mild official greeting for the commander in chief when Air Force One heads to South America for a summit of 21 Pacific Rim nations on Thursday. Reached.
The outgoing US leader, who traveled with his daughter Ashley and granddaughter Natalie, will travel to Brazil on Sunday for an aerial tour of the Amazon rainforest before attending the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Before leaving Peru, Biden will meet Xi for the third and final time of his presidency.
U.S. officials say Biden is expected to “responsibly” manage U.S.-China relations and restrict exports of the powerful synthetic opioid after Xi agreed in a meeting last year to combat fentanyl overdoses. Would appreciate the decline in deaths.
an estimated 223,000 Americans died The bulk of Biden’s first three years in office came from China-sourced synthetic opioids, and Republicans blame him for not doing more earlier to stem the flow.
Trump, 78, has threatened to restart his tariff-driven trade war with China, which was waged during his first term, in an effort to promote a new economic agreement that would benefit American companies.
The Republican president-elect has also called for a global reparations conference on COVID-19, in which the Chinese government could be billed trillions for its role in the origins of the pandemic, which has killed more than 1 million Americans.
Trump last year pressured China to pay $50 trillion in “reparations” for the virus, which parts of the US government, including the FBI, believe originated in a laboratory in Wuhan. It was caused by a leak.
During Biden’s presidency, Republicans accused him of being too soft on China due to payments of millions of dollars to his brother James Biden and son Hunter Biden during and immediately after his eight-year vice presidency.
Those payments were the subject of an impeachment inquiry that concluded Biden abused his former position to enrich his family, though the House dropped the investigation in July after Biden ended his re-election bid. Did not vote on articles of impeachment.
A 2017 email recovered from Hunter Biden’s discarded laptop documented a 10% cut for the “big guy” in a proposed joint venture between Biden family associates and a Chinese government-linked energy company Was.
Trump claimed last year that Biden was “bribed and now being blackmailed” by Beijing and the House speaker. Mike Johnson (R-La.) told The Post That Biden was “soft” on China and “it probably has something to do with trade relations and that may involve Hunter and James Biden and some of the deals they made there.”
(Tags to translate)US news(T)world news(T)China(T)Joe Biden(T)Xi Jinping
