By George Friedman Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Washington last week for a meeting that diplomatically might be called "nonproductive" — or, realistically, "disastrous." Not only was nothing settled, but a series of incidents — ranging from a reporter shouting insults at Hu and being permitted to continue doing so for three minutes, to an announcement that the national anthem of "The Republic of China" (also known as Taiwan) was being played — marred the visit, to say the least. It is hard for us to believe that the admission of a Falun Gong member to the White House press pool would go unnoticed by the White House staff, or that it would take three full minutes to silence her. We are, sad to say, cynical people, and it is plausible that the insults were deliberate.