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Press Briefing by Deputy National Security Advisor Faryar Shirzad and National Security Council Acting Senior Director Dennis Wilder 04/20/06
— Thursday, April 20, 2006 — Q What you've outlined are not major breakthroughs here, this was a lot more about kind of the choreography of the day. And a major wrench was thrown into that with this protestor. Can you explain a little bit the reaction of the Chinese, which we understand was not great? MR. WILDER: At the outset of the meeting in the Oval Office, the President expressed to the Chinese President his regret that, unfortunately, an individual made the decision that she was going to disrupt the speech given by the Chinese President. The Chinese President was gracious about that, and frankly, we moved on into the very important substantive areas and it never came up again between the two Presidents during the course of the day that I know of. Q Did the President actually apologize for that? Is that the word he used? MR. WILDER: He just said this was unfortunate, and I'm sorry this happened. Q Can you amplify a little bit on whether it's your feeling that the Chinese delegation will accept that as an answer, whether they will really believe that it was unintentional? And how serious a gaffe was this for all of you who have been working so hard on these other difficult issues? MR. WILDER: Well, first of all, we have worked very hard with the Chinese on making sure that the delegation is secure, protected. They've seen our efforts in this regard. You, of course, know of the barriers placed up to make sure that Blair House is protected. And we certainly make every effort to treat our guests well. I think the Chinese understand that. Obviously, there is a tension in the Chinese system that goes well beyond today over the issue of the Falun Gong. And so I'm not going to stand here and tell you that they were at ease with this situation. But I would be extremely surprised if the Chinese blame us for this. This is an individual who abused the rights of being in the press corps. Reporters in this situation aren't supposed to be making news, they're supposed to be reporting the news. And this particular individual made another decision. I think it's a momentary blip. I'm not too worried about it. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | News Media | Falun Gong | Protest
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 11:50 PM
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