Chinese President Hu Jintao is in town to meet with our own commander-in-chief and while I am sure most people are focusing on the more visible issues of trade, currency valuation, and nuclear proliferation I like to look at the apparently insignificant, yet likely-to-cause-diplomatic-hay types of moments.

FP Passport reports that while introducing the Chinese national anthem during the arrival ceremony on the South Lawn this morning, the announcer referred to it as the national anthem of the “Republic of China”. One problem–the Republic of China (ROC) is the official name of Taiwan, not China (which of course is referred to as the ‘Peoples’ Republic China–PRC).

Was it a simple mistake? Was it an intentional ‘gaffe’ whose purpose was to send a message? Regardless it should cause a few headaches and get a number of groups on the ROC all fired up.

Filed as: China