A 12-second video showing US military personnel adjusting the red carpet at the start of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s US visit has sparked widespread discussion on social media. Xi arrived in the US on Wednesday (September 23) for a three-day state visit.
He was accompanied by members of the Chinese delegation, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Hong Lei, the Chief of Protocol for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Bilateral discussions on trade, artificial intelligence, and international relations are the primary objectives of the visit.
Reports indicate that the video, filmed after Xi’s plane landed at Joint Base Andrews, shows several US military personnel on their hands and knees quickly adjusting a red carpet stretching approximately 30 meters (98 feet). They were smoothing out creases and cleaning away dirt before Xi disembarked.
Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Chief of Protocol Hong Lei, were seen observing the entire scene while standing at the aircraft’s doorway.
After the video went viral, many criticized the use of US military personnel for this task. One user described the incident as “deeply embarrassing.”
A man named Bill Madden wrote, “Just when you thought Trump couldn’t humiliate America—or himself—any further, he sent the US military to clean the red carpet on their hands and knees so that dust wouldn’t get on Xi’s shoes.”
Additionally, Amy McGrath—a former Marine fighter pilot from Kentucky and a Democratic politician—stated that US troops did not take an oath to become “props in a display to stroke the ego of an authoritarian leader.”
