(POOL/ REUTERS ) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), left, is shown the way by Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan during a meeting at the Zhongnanhai leaders compound in Beijing April 20, 2011.
Details are slowly trickling out about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s secret, week-long trip to China with nine other senators. The lawmakers have given out minimal information about their itinerary because of supposed “security concerns.”
Last checked in, the intrepid congressional delegation (or codel) had paused in Hong Kong over the weekend, likely morphing into a shopping delegation (or shopdel).
The next afternoon, to meet their stated goal of doing “site visits of American investments” in China, they took a ferry to . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . Macau, a tiny former Portuguese enclave where major Reid backer and Las Vegas gambling impresario Steve Wynn and other American casino operators have invested big-time — and profited enormously.
Wynn Macau is one of six casinos — MGM Resorts International and Sheldon Adelson’s Sands China are also there — allowed in the gambling mecca, the only place in China with legal gambling.
Anyone who’s seen a James Bond movie knows casinos are home to an evil assortment of bad guys, assassins and terrorists — even the entire Spectre headquarters. That’s why the group would have tried to blend in with other tourists — not an easy thing for 10 senators, 10 spouses, five staff members and assorted foreign service officers.
But the delegation (or crapsdel) made the perilous hour-long boat trip Tuesday without incident and arrived on time at the MGM Macau for a lunch sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce there.
Our invitation to the lunch, sent earlier this month to “AmCham Macau Members only,” says the U.S. consul general and other consulate staff members also will be at the two-hour lunch, making it “a great opportunity to sit down up close and personal for a private lunch with distinguished members of the U.S. Senate.”
To ensure a decent turnout, the invite said AmCham “members can bring along any friends who would like to meet with Sen. Reid and his delegation” for the “same admission fee” as all members’ friends. That’s only 200 MOP (Macau Patacas — really) or about $25 per person to get in, less than you’d pay for good seats to watch the Washington Nationals perform.
The Senate group included six other Democrats and three Republicans: Richard Shelby R-Ala.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) , Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
It’s unclear whether they stayed on for dinner at one of the restaurants Wynn and the others have brought to Macau, such as Joel Robuchon’s world-class French restaurant or Don Alfonso Iaccarino’s equally stunning Italian restaurant.
But they ate well, Reid told China’s Vice Premier Wang Qishan on Wednesday. Wang, whose government is in the midst of a major crackdown on dissident leaders, told Reid it was “a great pleasure for me to have an opportunity to meet 10 heavyweight U.S. senators,” according to Xinhua News Agency. “Such a formulation alone reflected the weight you place on China-U.S. relations,” Wang said.
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