US Officials Say China Subjected American Diplomats to COVID Anal Swab
America is back — to being humiliated on the world stage in the absence of sound leadership in the White House.
Diplomats who were representing President Joe Biden’s State Department were given invasive and degrading “anal swabs” to test for the coronavirus upon entering China recently, according to reports.
The Washington Post reported last week that U.S. officials had complained about being subjected to the tests.
“In response to questions about the anal swab testing of U.S. officials, a State Department spokesman said the department was ‘evaluating all reasonable options’ to address the issue with the aim of preserving the ‘dignity’ of U.S. officials ‘consistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,'” The Post reported.
Vice, citing a State Department representative, reported Wednesday that an unknown number of American diplomats were asked to take the swabs during a recent visit to China.
The representative added that Chinese government officials will no longer administer such tests “after Washington complained that the practice was undignified,” the report said.
“The State Department never agreed to this kind of testing and protested directly to the [Chinese] Ministry of Foreign Affairs when we learned that some staff were subject to it,” the State Department representative told Vice. “We have instructed staff to decline this test if it is asked of them, as was done in the past.”
Chinese officials attributed the degrading tests to an “error,” according to the report. Anal swab tests are required of travelers when entering some parts of China, but the State Department employees were supposed to be exempt from them.
The BBC reported China has denied the tests were ever administered on Americans in the country on an apparent diplomatic mission. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a news conference Thursday that “China has never required U.S. diplomatic staff stationed in China to conduct anal swab tests.”
The outlet further noted how such tests are carried out in China.
“Anal swabs involve inserting a cotton swab 3-5cm (1.2-2.0 inches) into the anus and gently rotating it,” BBC noted.
Jokes about how China humiliated the State Department could very easily write themselves. But there is nothing humorous about Americans being debased by one of the world’s biggest human rights abusers.
The story here, though, is that government personnel representing the U.S. do not carry the respect they did just six weeks ago. Can you imagine former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo allowing his staff members and deputies to be rectally swabbed by a foreign adversary?
Better yet, can you imagine if something so humiliating occurred and had made its way up the pipeline back to former President Donald Trump, had it occurred under his watch? Heads would have rolled — as they should be here.
But Biden and Democrats are now running the government, and the world knows that. The world’s bullies are aware that, as in the pre-Trump world, Americans are ripe for humiliation.
Not since January 2016, former President Barack Obama’s final year in office, have Americans been so degraded internationally. That is when 10 American sailors were detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Persian Gulf after briefly entering the country’s territory.
The Obama administration and then-Secretary of State John Kerry touted the detainments and releases as some sort of foreign policy win. The Iranians, meanwhile, celebrated the affection between the two countries by ensuring images of U.S. Navy personnel on their knees went viral across the globe.
#Iran state TV showed a footage in which the commander of #US sailors made an apology.#navy#Pentagon pic.twitter.com/VCdjEZiY54
— Abas Aslani (@AbasAslani) January 13, 2016
The “positive vibe” resulting form the deal with #Iran. US sailors humiliated, Washington thanks Tehran. pic.twitter.com/5HWir7kyEI
— Hussain Abdul-Hussain ?? (@hahussain) January 13, 2016
America is back, as Biden recently declared. The country is back to being the butt of international jokes.
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