Humiliating detail in Joe Biden photograph in APEC conference

This embarrassing picture taken at an APEC conference “says it all” about US President Biden’s current position on the world stage.

President Joe Biden was relegated to the back corner of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference’s annual family photo in Peru, as Chinese President Xi Jinping enjoyed a front-and-centre position next to the host country’s President Dina Boluarte.

The petty humiliation of America’s leader came ahead of his Saturday afternoon meeting with Xi, who has been feted with relative pomp throughout the APEC event in Lima as thanks for his country’s financing of a large new port on Peru’s coast, the New York Post reported.

Biden, 81, whose increasing irrelevance domestically and on the world stage has earned him the moniker of “super lame duck”, arrived last to the family photo before taking his position between the fellow back-row leaders of Thailand and Vietnam.

The order of world leaders is alphabetical by country, although a review of past APEC family photos show national positions aren’t fixed. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump seized a choice centre spot in two photos – once in the front row, once in the back – for the APEC summit in Vietnam, the only such gathering he attended.

This year, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Papua New Guinea’s Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso stood out of order, manoeuvring behind Boluarte and Xi.

Biden’s position was a clear sign that the world’s leaders don’t take him “seriously anymore ever since Nancy Pelosi threw him out,” Representative Claudia Tenney told The Post.

“They probably should have invited President-elect [Donald] Trump down. I’m sure he would’ve been in the centre of the photo with Xi Jinping,” she added.

US President Joe Biden and other leaders participate in a family photo during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leadership Retreat summit in Peru. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Added Representative Jeff Van Drew: “There are lame ducks and then there are the lamest of lame ducks. Biden has been a lame duck since he was elected. This photo is a metaphor for his presidency. A picture is worth a thousand words – and this picture says it all.”

Geopolitical stagecraft

Other leaders with front-row placement included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and their Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim.

The dignitaries wore brown scarves, likely part of the summit’s ritual in which world leaders wear traditional garments of the host country for the photo-op. At the 2016 APEC summit in Peru, attendees wore long, brown shawls made out of luxe wool from the llama-like vicuña.

The White House insisted Biden had not been snubbed – but admitted several leaders were photographed “out of order”.

“It is the same assigned order APEC used in both 2008 and 2016,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said, citing former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s respective placements at previous summits in Peru, when both were also serving their final year in office.

“This year, a few leaders stood out of order due to protocol errors but President Biden stood correctly in the United States’ assigned spot.”

Biden’s trip has featured several small humiliations so far, including a grandiose welcome for Xi and a noticeably lighter official greeting for the commander in chief when Air Force One arrived in South America on Thursday for the 21-nation summit of the Pacific Rim countries.

“It’s an embarrassment to our country – under Joe Biden, America is weaker, our enemies emboldened, and the world less peaceful,” said US Representative Mike Lawler. “Jan. 20 can’t come fast enough.”

Biden speaks with Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at APEC. Picture: Saul Loeb

Now bound for Brazil

Biden, who travelled with daughter Ashley and granddaughter Natalie, will head to Brazil on Sunday (local time) for an aerial tour of the Amazon rainforest before participating in the G20 economic summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Before leaving Peru, Biden met with Xi at the Chinese leader’s hotel for the third and final time of his presidency.

Asked by reporters why the summit was not taking place at Biden’s accommodations, a White House official said hosting such meetings are “essentially a rotation.”

“Last year, the US hosted China at the Woodside summit. Whoever is hosting chooses the location,” they added.

Biden with Chinese President Xi Jinping at APEC. Picture: Leah Millis/POOL/AFP

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan were among the handful of US officials who were seated with Biden across from Xi and their Chinese counterparts.

“The United States has recently concluded its elections,” Xi told Biden during his opening remarks.

“China’s goal of a stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship remains unchanged.

“China is ready to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand co-operation and manage differences, so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-US relationship for the benefit of the two peoples.”

US officials say Biden is expected to tout work to “responsibly” manage US-China relations and to hail a decline in fentanyl overdose deaths after Xi agreed at a 2023 meeting to restrict exports of the potent synthetic opioid.

Biden, who travelled with daughter Ashley and granddaughter Natalie, will next head to Brazil. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

An estimated 223,000 Americans died from the mostly China-sourced drug in Biden’s first three years in office and Republicans blasted him for not doing more earlier to halt the flow.

Trump, 78, has threatened to renew his tariff-driven trade war with China, which during his first term was waged in an attempt to broker a new economic pact to benefit US companies.

The Republican president-elect also has called for a global reparations conference on COVID-19 in which the Chinese government could be given a bill into the trillions for its role in the origins of the pandemic that killed more than 1 million Americans, and about 7 million worldwide.

Trump last year floated forcing China to pay USD$50 (AUD$77) trillion in “reparations” for the virus, which parts of the US government, including the FBI, believe originated with a leak at a lab in Wuhan.

This story originally appeared on the New York Post and was republished with permission.