Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been blasted for bowing to her Chinese counterpart in Beijing last week.
Embarrassing footage shows Yellen approaching Vice Premier He Lifeng and bowing several times while enthusiastically shaking his hand.
The move has been described as a ‘disgusting display of weakness’.
Fox news reports: Former White House staffer Bradley Blakeman, who served during President George W. Bush’s administration, told the New York Post that the gesture was unseemly.
“Never, ever, ever…an American official does not bow. It looks like she’s been summoned to the principal’s office, and that’s exactly the optics the Chinese love,” Blakeman said.
Some Twitter users shared the same sentiment, calling the bow embarrassing for the United States.
“She did not realize bowing as an American official was a breach of protocol,” author Max Murray wrote on Twitter. “They don’t reciprocate. He even backs away to give her more space to kowtow.”