What caused SHOUTING MATCH on the tarmac as Air Force One arrived in #China with Obama?

Reuters

HANGZHOU, China —Obama is in town for the G20 Summit. White House officials expect sharp words and the occasional elbow when an American president travels to China. But the reception that President Obama and his staff got when they arrived here Saturday afternoon was bruising, even by Chinese standards.

When Air Force One rolled to a stop, there was no staircase for Mr. Obama to disembark in view of the television cameras. Instead, he emerged from a rarely used door in the belly of the plane. It did not matter, since the reporters who normally cover the president’s movements were kept behind a rope under a wing, where they could not see him, prompting an angry exchange between a security official and White House aides.

When Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, ducked under the rope, she was immediately stopped by a Chinese official, who heatedly challenged her. Asked later by a reporter what had happened, a diplomatic Ms. Rice said, “They did things that weren’t anticipated.”

The surprises continued at the West Lake State House, where Mr. Obama met President Xi Jinping. White House aides, protocol officers and Secret Service agents were stopped at a security checkpoint, according to a pool report. A shouting match, in Chinese, broke out over how many Americans should be allowed into the building before Mr. Obama’s arrival, and whether their names were on the proper lists.

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