AsiaPundit did not foresee progress on any significant issues during the Hu Jintao visit to Washington … AP’s low expectations were massively exceeded.

Via Gordon:

…in a protocol gaffe, when China’s national anthem was announced, it was referred to as the anthem of the Republic of China - the formal name of Taiwan. China’s formal name is the People’s Republic of China.

The 88s:

“Over here, son.” Bush proving that he can’t even master body language.

And the kicker, an FLG protester managed to heckle Hu during his address:

China Confidential - who is no CPC fan - in a meaty essay, sees the events as a major setback.:

…neither Bush’s personal apology to Hu for the arrival ceremony incident, nor excuses and explanations citing US press freedom and the tradition of permitting protestors to assemble across the street from the White House are likely to help. Hu rose to power in a system distinguished by secrecy and intrigue. At the national political level in China, very little, if anything, happens without a reason. Administration officials will no doubt try their best to persuade the Chinese that disruptive protests are as American as the apple pie reportedly served for dessert at the White House lunch; but the country that has shown an ability to turn protest on and off like a faucet–as revealed by the rowdy anti-Japanese demonstrations that rocked Chinese cities only a year ago–will inevitably draw its own conclusions. Hu is considered a pragmatic centrist on relations with Washington; but there is no shortage of hardliners in Beijing who will seek to make hay (to use an old American expression) out of the way things played out for their president when he visited there.

It would be no exaggeration to say that the longterm consequences of Thursday’s events for the US–and people everywhere yearning for a lowering of international tensions–could turn out to be both negative and significant.

And in D.C., Nikolas K. Gvosdev asks ‘was this incompetence of planned?’:

There is a long tradition in American politics of “accidents” at the White House which enable the president or senior government officials to meet controversial people or deliver unpleasant messages without having them be graced with the official seal of approval. JFK meeting Martin Luther King; Clinton “just happening” to run into Salman Rushdie; the first president Bush meeting the prime minister of Lithuania as a “private citizen” in order not to weaken Gorbachev …

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