Beijing yesterday was a bit like Washington on St Patrick's day. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was feted by top legislators, Mrs Mary Robinson was given an audience with the President, the Tricolour flew outside the congress building and the government band played Amhran na bhFiann.
The day began for Mr Ahern's party in the rather unreal surroundings of Novosibirsk at 1.40 a.m. Irish time, where he found himself discussing the problems of Siberian agriculture with the local governor over a large breakfast while the Government Gulf Stream jet was being refuelled. "Always nice to do something different," he commented dryly. As his plane proceeded across the Gobi Desert towards China, Mrs Robinson was entering the Daioyutai guest house complex in Beijing to meet President Jiang Zemin at the end of her first, and apparently rather frustrating, tour of the world's most populous country as UN High Commissioner of Human Rights.
The guest houses are situated among small lakes connected by arched bridges and draped with willow trees behind which security guards lurk conspicuously. Mr Jiang greeted her cordially in English in a tree-shaded courtyard where Chinese journalists spend the day lounging in wicker chairs between photo opportunities. The two proceeded along a red carpet laid out on the flagstones and into the inner sanctum of guest house number 15 for their deliberations. There Mr Jiang told her that feeding and sheltering China's 1.2 billion people took precedence over everything else, but that Beijing was working to guarantee rights and freedoms.
As this was going on, out at Beijing International Airport another red carpet was being unrolled by two workers for the Government jet, which arrived at 1.30 p.m. local time. Mr Ahern emerged accompanied by his partner, Ms Celia Larkin, in leather jacket and trousers, and several senior officials. They were whisked through Beijing, where whole flotillas of bicycles were help back by police until they passed, to guest house number 18 in Diaoyutai, just missing Mrs Robinson, who had gone for lunch with Deng Pu Fang, son of the late Deng Xiaoping and chairman of the Federation of Disabled People. Deng Pu Fang is confined to a wheelchair after being thrown from a window by Red Guards when his father was out of favour during the Cultural Revolution.
After a quick change, the Irish party were taken to the Great Hall of the People for an official welcome by Premier Zhu Rongji. The ceremony actually took place on a plaza at the edge of Tiananmen Square, scene of the crushing of pro-democracy protests in 1989, an act which so horrified public opinion in Ireland that the government condemned China at the UN Human Rights Commission every year until 1998, when EU countries opted instead for dialogue. Yesterday, therefore, symbolised a great leap forward in normalising Sino-Irish relations and the Chinese really laid it on. Mr Ahern admitted afterwards to feeling quite impressed, even emotional, at the awesome nature of the setting, with crossed Irish and Chinese flags flying in front of the Forbidden City.
As the Taoiseach and Mr Zhu walked along (yet another) red carpet towards a podium, a 75piece brass band stuck up a perfect rendering of The Soldiers' Song and field guns in the square banged out a 19-gun salute (only presidents get 21). It was the first gun salute the Taoiseach had ever been given, and he commented afterwards delightedly that "it seemed to rattle the place". Remembering the recent violent history of the square, however, gave him the confidence to put tough questions on human rights to Mr Rongji and his officials in their subsequent talks.
The reception in the vast square was the same as President Clinton got, and precisely the same honours will be accorded to six other EU prime ministers, including Mr Tony Blair, before the end of the year, as China courts Europe as never before in history. The Taoiseach then inspected a guard of honour of 150 heavily-braided servicemen from the army, navy and air force, chosen not just because of their military precision but because they are all exactly the same height. Ms Larkin, dressed now in a red dress, stood beside Lao An, wife of the Chinese Premier, to watch, and afterwards as the politicians did the business inside the Great Hall of the People, she was given a tour of the adjoining rooms.
After 90 minutes of talks, Mr Ahern, wearing a dark suit and gold cufflinks with harp insignia, and the large Irish party of businessmen and officials, were entertained by Mr Zhu to a banquet in another room of the cavernous Great Hall. The Taoiseach and Ms Larkin were then ferried by limousine back to guest house No 18 for the evening.
A clearly exhausted Mrs Robinson arrived shortly afterwards to brief Mr Ahern on her human rights mission and they chatted for an hour in the villa.
This morning Mr Ahern will meet President Jiang Zemin, at about the same time as Mrs Robinson is giving a press conference across town. He plans to finish a heavy day of engagements, just as he might in Washington, in an Irish pub, or as the official programme discreetly puts it, in an Irish "club", without recording the fact that it is otherwise known as "Durty Nellie's", which opened just two weeks ago in Beijing as if in anticipation of a sudden rush of customers.