For anyone who tuned into President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday, you likely saw, or felt, quite a bit of unease on stage.
Given the ongoing global tensions between the two world superpowers, that shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise.
What may come as a bit more of a surprise, however, were the roiling tensions behind the celebratory scenes.
The New York Post reported that “chaos” erupted all around the fringes of Trump’s summit with Xi.
The first major incident that occurred happened during Trump’s morning meeting with Xi. When the doors were opened for the Chinese press, they — quite literally — stampeded inside.
Amid the chaos, a female White House staffer was knocked over and trampled. Thankfully, the staffer avoided any serious injuries, though she was bruised and shaken. The entire ordeal prompted the American side of this summit to vociferously protest the behavior of the Chinese press corps.
You can view a part of that incident below, courtesy of the BBC (the final 20 minutes does a good job of capturing the early morning chaos):
Later, in the afternoon, there was a tense standoff between groups at China’s Temple of Heaven, a historical complex of imperial religious Confucian buildings.
The White House press pool was there ahead of the two world leaders (Trump and Xi’s morning meeting apparently ran long), and were stopped by Chinese officials, who demanded that a Secret Service agent assigned to the group give up his firearm.
The agent refused, the group refused to leave without the agent, and Chinese officials refused to leave without the agent’s gun. This reportedly lasted for half an hour.
Mildly cooler heads would eventually prevail, as a different Secret Service agent who had already been cleared to enter came back to accompany the press pool, while the first agent stayed back.
Tensions between the press pool and Chinese officials would flare up once more at the end of Trump’s meeting.
As the U.S. president began to leave the Temple of Heaven, Chinese officials wouldn’t allow the press to join the presidential motorcade. This led to another standoff, with the two sides bickering.
However, once Trump was secured and the U.S. officials announced that they were departing, the American press pool forcibly shoved their way past Chinese authorities to join the motorcade. This would apparently lead to an utterly bizarre scene of other Chinese officials chasing American press with their arms out, trying to stop them from leaving. The journalists disregarded their efforts and raced to their vehicles, leaving with the motorcade.
According to Fox News, the most tense moment on the visit so far involved the Chinese president’s stern warnings against America getting involved in any Chinese conflict or situation with Taiwan.
The White House has denied the characterization of this exchange.
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