Michelle Obama is taking some heat over her family’s weeklong visit to China. While I think most of the criticism is trivial, I strongly agree with one point: If this isn’t just a vacation, as the White House claims, then the press should have been allowed to join her on the trip.
No reporters accompanied the First Lady to China and she isn’t doing any interviews here. That doesn’t make sense if this is an official visit. If it’s government business, the press should be allowed to tag along. And if it’s not government business, then why should taxpayers pay for it, especially since she brought along her two daughters and her mother?
Other objections are specious. Critics say the president’s wife should be using the occasion to speak out against China’s violations of human rights, free press and international trade, instead of focusing on education. I wouldn’t mind if she did that, but whoever said the First Lady is required to get involved in political issues when she travels abroad?
She did make a mild statement the other day about the importance of free speech, but she clearly doesn’t intend to offend her hosts. Judging by her itinerary, it looks like a standard tourist junket: the Forbidden City and Great Wall in Beijing, the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an and the Giant Panda research and breeding center in Chengdu.
Other First Ladies have made similar trips to China, which are really vacations masquerading as cultural exchanges. I don’t think taxpayers should foot the bill for any of them.
