WATCH: Biden Treasury Secretary Humiliates U.S., Eagerly Bows Down To The Chinese - 'Like She's Being Summoned To The Principle's Office'

Janet Yellen, President Joe Biden's Secretary of the Treasury, made international headlines Saturday for all the wrong reasons during her visit to Beijing. The 76-year-old economist, when approaching Vice Premier He Lifeng, was caught on video bowing repeatedly and enthusiastically while shaking He's hand. The move was a completely inappropriate gesture that reeks of deference and subservience of the Biden administration to China under Xi Jinping.

Former Bush administration White House staffer Bradley Blakeman explained to Fox News that the maneuver was unseemly and wholly inappropriate. 

"Never, ever, ever…an American official does not bow. It looks like she’s been summoned to the principal’s office, and that’s exactly the optics the Chinese love," Blakeman told Fox.

Vice Premier He seemed to queue off of the deferential gesture as well, taking a bullish approach and openly criticizing the United States, implying that the US has not been acting in a "rational" or "practical" fashion.

"We wish the US side would take a rational and practical attitude, meet with the Chinese side half-way, make joint efforts with China in maintaining the consensus reached between the two state leaders in their meeting in Bali, and put the positive remarks into actions, so as to stabilize and improve the China-US relations."

Yellen's response in regard to US policy was lukewarm and milquetoast at best. She answered, "The United States will take targeted actions to protect our national security. While we may disagree on these actions, we should not allow that disagreement to lead to misunderstandings, particularly those stemming from the lack of communication, which can unnecessarily worsen our bilateral economic and financial relationship."

Apologists on Twitter alluded to Chinese decorum which reportedly calls for three bows during formal introductions. However, as Miss Manners of The Washington Post has informed readers SEVERAL times over the years, bowing or curtsying is blatantly inappropriate for an American. "The American greeting routine used to be simple. Because we officially consider all people to be equal and equally worthy of respect, the same gesture, the handshake -- simple, dignified and egalitarian -- would do for all," she wrote. 

And we can officially torch the argument of Chinese custom thanks to Jerome A. Cohen, an emeritus professor at NYU and expert in Chinese law and government who told The New York Post, "Bowing is not part of the accepted protocol."

Blakeman speaking with The Post, added, “The way to treat an adversary is, you don’t go hat in hand." He added, “But with this administration, time and time again, we embarrass ourselves and show weakness. And it just shows the lack of effective leverage we have.”

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