WASHINGTON – China’s president, Hu Jintao, got almost everything he wanted out of yesterday’s visit to the White House.

He got the 21-gun salute, the review of the troops, and the colonial fife and drum corps. He got the exchange of toasts and a meal of wild-caught Alaskan halibut with mushroom essence, $50 chardonnay, and live bluegrass music. And he got an Oval Office photo op with President Bush, who nodded and smiled as if he understood Chinese when Mr. Hu was speaking.

If only the White House hadn’t given press credentials to a Falun Gong activist who five years ago heckled Mr. Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin, in Malta. Sure enough, 90 seconds into Mr. Hu’s speech on the South Lawn, the woman started shrieking, “President Hu, your days are numbered!” and “President Bush, stop him from killing!”

Messrs. Bush and Hu looked up, stunned. It took so long to silence her – a full three minutes – that Mr. Bush’s aides began to wonder if the Secret Service’s strategy was to let her scream herself hoarse.The rattled Chinese premier haltingly attempted to continue his speech, and television coverage went to split screen.

“You’re okay,” Mr. Bush gently reassured Mr. Hu.

But he wasn’t okay, not really. The protocol-obsessed Chinese leader suffered a day full of indignities – some intentional, others just careless. The visit began with a slight when the official announcer said the band would play the “national anthem of the Republic of China” – the official name of Taiwan. It continued when Vice President Cheney donned sunglasses for the ceremony, and again when Mr. Hu, attempting to leave the stage via the wrong staircase, was yanked back by his jacket. Mr. Hu looked down at his sleeve to see Mr. Bush tugging at it as if redirecting an errant child.

Then there were the intentional slights. China wanted a formal state visit, as Mr. Jiang got, but the administration refused, calling it an “official” visit instead. Mr. Bush insisted on a luncheon instead of a formal dinner, in the East Room instead of the State Dining Room. Even the visiting country’s flags were missing from the lampposts near the White House.

But as protocol breaches go, it is hard to top the heckling of a foreign leader at the White House. Explaining the incident – the first disruption at the executive mansion in recent memory – White House and Secret Service officials said she was “a legitimate journalist” and that there was nothing suspicious in her background. In other words: Who knew?

Mr. Hu did. The Chinese had warned the White House to be careful about who was admitted to the ceremony. To no avail: They granted a one-day pass to Wang Wenyi of the Falun Gong publication Epoch Times. A quick Nexis search shows that in 2001, she slipped through a security cordon in Malta protecting Mr. Jiang (she had been denied press credentials) and got into an argument with him.

In negotiations, Mr. Hu gave the American side nothing tangible on delicate matters such as the nuclear problems in North Korea and Iran, the Chinese currency’s value, and the trade deficit with China.

The meeting in the Oval Office brought more of the same. In front of the cameras, Mr. Bush thanked Mr. Hu for his “frankness” – diplomatic code for disagreement – and Mr. Hu stood expressionless. The two unexpectedly agreed to take questions from reporters, but Mr. Bush grew impatient as Mr. Hu gave a long answer about trade, made all the longer by the translation. Mr. Bush at one point tapped his foot on the ground. “It was a very comprehensive answer,” he observed when Mr. Hu finished.

Last came the unofficial state luncheon. After the butter heirloom corn broth and the ginger-scented dumplings had been consumed, Mr. Hu rose with a toast that proclaimed he and Mr. Bush had “reached a broad and important agreement on China-U.S. relations.”

The White House didn’t see it that way. Instead of a statement about a new accord with China, it issued a press release titled “MEDICARE CHECK-UP: Prescription Drug Benefit Enrollment Hits 30 Million.”