First Lady Michelle Obama will be accompanied by her children and her mother on her trip to China, which begins on Wednesday. But she won’t be accompanied by the press and she will take no questions from the media.
“Michelle Obama’s trip to China starting on Wednesday will be nonpolitical, the White House says, a ‘people-to-people exchange’ emphasizing the importance that both nations place on education. As if to underscore the point, no reporters are traveling with the first lady, and she does not plan to give interviews while there,” reports the New York Times.
The White House is defending the first lady bringing her family along for the ride by saying it’s what the Chinese would want. “Tina Tchen, Mrs. Obama’s chief of staff and a first-generation Chinese-American, said a multigenerational visit would be appreciated by the Chinese, who value tradition,” says the Times.
‘The most powerful message we can deliver [to the Chinese people] is one of the examples of not just the first lady’s life story but of America and our values,’ Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters during the Monday call.
‘That alone I think speaks to things like respect for human rights that are interwoven into the DNA of the United States of America.’
American and Chinese leaders have not had especially close personal relationships and there is hope among foreign relations experts that Obama and Peng will form a bond.
Obama’s trip comes as fears about China’s economy mount, the country flexes its muscles in disputed areas of the South China Sea and a missing Malaysian plane carrying Chinese nationals.
“In the US, women enjoy equal rights as men in politics,” said Shen Dingli, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai. “But in Chinese traditional culture, we have a saying: ‘a woman without talent is virtuous’.” While female Chinese business leaders are common, he said, women barely appear at the highest levels of the country’s political elite – only two rank among its 25 top officials.
US officials say they want to spread the “power of American values,” and the importance of education. On her second day in Beijing, Obama will give a speech about cultural exchange at the Stanford Center at Peking University, where she’ll meet with Chinese and American students.
About 200,000 Chinese students are studying in the US, more than from any other country. Only 20,000 American students study in China each year. The Obama administration wants to boost that number.
She won’t meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping, but will visit with his wife Peng Liyuan, visit schools and tourist highlights and eat lunch at a Tibetan restaurant.
Source: The Weekly Standard/Washington Post/The Guardian