What happens when China's president comes to dinner?
 

When Chinese President Hu Jintao dropped in on a farmer during a Chinese new year holiday, the visit appeared spontaneous and relaxed.

A TV news report showed Mr Hu laughing with the farmer and his family, and enjoying a local speciality, the Dingxi potato.

But what appears to be a confidential cable from the US embassy in Beijing - made public by WikiLeaks - suggests the visit was not as casual as it looked.

Senior communist party officials had been preparing for the trip for days to make sure nothing went wrong.

No detail, it seems, is too small; officials even instructed the farmer not to shave - to ensure he looked suitably rustic.

Unknown visitor

Political leaders across the world seek to manipulate media events for favourable coverage, but those attempts are often documented.

What is less well known is how Chinese leaders seek to direct public opinion through staged-managed events.

This leaked document gives a rare insight into that world.

The cable - entitled When Hu Jintao Comes For Dinner - was sent to the US secretary of state from Beijing in November 2009.

It details a visit by Mr Hu - who is also general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party - to Gansu province two years earlier.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14804739


Note: 7 September 2011 Last updated at 23:00 GMT

I don't know - haven't read anything but the title and I'm knackered, way past bedtime for moi.

So on with my answer - the dogs all disappear? :hmmm: :o

Bedtime...me too,but your answer was very interesting,analytically...:hmmm:

Well...invite a dog to dinner and don't get too suprised if a mongrel turns up :smug:

Didn't Bush throw up on them once alraedy?

I've no idea...a whisker caught in his throat perhaps? :o

^:har:

that was Bush the Elder, and in Japan

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...panese-pm.jpeg

edit: i threw up on a dog once, also due to gastric infection. it ran away

I am confused on what exactly is the news here.

A president of a nation never does anything in public casually but often want's it to appear casual.

Do you think that when the American President "stops by a pizza joint" that the USSS has not been working out the logistics for weeks?

And the White House press department is not trying to make it look casual?

So what exactly did wikileaks uncover?

The dog or the infection?