A tense incident overshadowed the state visit of American President Donald Trump to China, after Secret Service agents engaged in a harsh exchange of words with Chinese officials at the entrance to a famous temple in Beijing. The reason for the dispute: one of the American agents was armed and was not allowed to enter the historic complex.
The delicate moment occurred on the first full day of official meetings between Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two discussed sensitive topics such as trade relations between Washington and Beijing, tensions over Taiwan, and the conflict in Iran.
After a meeting that lasted approximately two hours and a quarter, Trump avoided giving details about the discussions held with Xi. Subsequently, the two heads of state visited together the Temple of Heaven, an emblematic monument of Beijing built in the fifteenth century.
However, that’s where the diplomatic and security conflict erupted. According to the journalists who accompanied the American leader, a Secret Service agent escorting the reporters was stopped by Chinese security and was denied access to the temple premises because of the weapon he was carrying.
“The press’s access to the complex was delayed by almost 30 minutes due to a lengthy and increasingly tense discussion between American and Chinese officials, after Chinese authorities refused to allow a Secret Service agent to enter armed”, reported AFP correspondent Danny Kemp.
He also said that the press representatives were temporarily kept in a side room, while the officials of the two delegations were having a “heated debate” about the group’s movement.
Ultimately, the two parties would have reached a compromise, but the details of the agreement were not made public.
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The tensions did not stop here. According to the same source, after Trump’s departure from the temple, journalists and American staff were once again briefly blocked by Chinese officials, who reportedly tried on multiple occasions to prevent the group from joining the presidential procession.
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