China Exhibits Very Bad Judgement in Whom to Intimidate

Don’t get me wrong. There’s absolutely no excuse for a country hosting the Olympic games to detain the press corps traveling with one of the visiting dignitaries.

A charter airplane carrying the White House press corps was detained for nearly three hours Friday at Beijing’s international airport not long after President Bush arrived to attend the Olympic Games.

The flight crew of the Northwest Airlines 747 had been expecting to park at a VIP terminal, but after landing was instead directed by the control tower to a normal international gate.

White House officials would say only there were "logistical problems" getting clearance to unload the aircraft. The flight crew was told the Chinese were insisting that all luggage be inspected.

Detaining the plane carrying the White House press corps makes China look like the still-authoritarian nation they denied they were (and are) when they first got the games.

And, no doubt, when they were "inspecting" all the baggage on the plane, I’m sure they snuck a few bugs in here and there among the electronics, just for good measure.

But really, China. Of all the journalists covering the games this year, do you really think the White House press corps are the journalists you ought to be intimidating? By habit, these journalists are among the most domesticated of western journalists, wiling to cow to authority to retain their spot on the plane (particularly since Helen’s out still sick). Both from a PR perspective–in that, before this happened, China was likely to get a good review from these journalists–and from a power perspective, I’d be a little more worried about the ESPN crew than the White House press corps.

Nevertheless–may all the journalists on board check their equipment carefully and have a safe rest of the trip.