Western media 'sensationalised' Obama's G20 snub: Chinese newspaper

Beijing [China], Sept. 5(ANI): Following accusations of delivering a calculated diplomatic snub to United States President Barack Obama for not providing with a staircase to leave his plane during his arrival at the G20 Summit by Chinese authorities, a Chinese newspaper has suggested that the incident was "trifling" one adding, it has been sensationalised by the western media. Obama arrived at the Hangzhou international airport on Saturday afternoon as his final face-to-face meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Global Times, a Communist party controlled tabloid in an editorial pointed out its views on the airport saga. "Western media has hyped up the incident, but Obama tried to play it down," the Guardian quoted the Global Times as saying. "This makes us believe that the tense atmosphere between China and the US can be partly attributed to the western media, which often makes a fuss over trifling issues," it added. Officials from the both the countries are said to have exchanged angry words with one local official castigating a White House staffer. Stating that the episode would not eclipse US-China cooperation, it said that "Obama probably would not like to see undercurrents in Sino-US ties before he leaves office." Chinese Government is said to have denied of diplomatic snub to Obama, who did not disembark from his aircraft on to a red-carpet-lined staircase, like other world leaders arriving for the G20. Shen Dingli, an international relations expert from the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai, told Singapore's Straits Times that the US should know well what they have done to upset China. The reason could be Washington's criticism at Beijing's activities in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), a Pentagon spy agency, also chimed the incident. "Classy as always China," DIA tweeted, linking to a New York Times article about the incident. The message was, however, later deleted. A subsequent post by the account read, "Earlier today, a tweet regarding a news article was mistakenly posted from this account & does not represent the views of the DIA. We apologize." (ANI)