First Lady Michelle Obama, her mother and the girls are taking another taxpayer funded trip. This time they’re going to China. I’m sure she will enjoy seeing first hand how authoritarian regimes keep their people in line.

The first lady, her mother, her two kids, plus numerous White House aides and security personnel are going to tour China this month, but White House officials are refusing to say how much the taxpayers will pay for the trip.

However, they did say it would be a thrill for everyone on the trip, including for Michelle Obama’s top aide, Tina Tchen.

“It is a real honor and privilege, and I think we are all, here in the first lady’s office, quite excited about the upcoming trip,” said Chen, just after she declared that “my parents emigrated from China in the late ’40s, so this … will be my fourth time returning to China but the first time, obviously, in a role such as this.”

“The first lady has been looking for an opportunity to go to China,” said Ben Rhodes, the White House’s deputy national security advisor for strategic communications. (Read More)

Mrs.Obama’s 2010 trip to Spain cost taxpayers at least $487,000 and her trip to South Africa came in at around $424,000. The White House will not release the cost of the trip to China or many other details citing security reasons.

http://lonelyconservative.com/2014/03/we...Conservative%29

It wouldn't be so objectionable if she didn't keep coming back.

Maybe we can dig up the pilot of MA370 to take her where she needs to go.

Well this just totally sucks. She travels on our dime, we get to know what she's doing; even if the MSM will slant and protect. This woman really thinks she's our empress, doesn't she?

No Reporters on Michelle Obama's Trip to China

First Lady Michelle Obama will be accompanied by her children and her mother on her trip to China, which begins today. But she won't be accompanied by the press.

"Michelle Obama’s trip to China starting on Wednesday will be nonpolitical, the White House says, a 'people-to-people exchange' emphasizing the importance that both nations place on education. As if to underscore the point, no reporters are traveling with the first lady, and she does not plan to give interviews while there," reports the New York Times.

The White House is defending the first lady bringing her family along for the ride by saying it's what the Chinese would want. "Tina Tchen, Mrs. Obama’s chief of staff and a first-generation Chinese-American, said a multigenerational visit would be appreciated by the Chinese, who value tradition," says the Times.

But in America, the trip is not without controversy. "Mrs. Obama is drawing scrutiny for her decision to travel with her mother and her two daughters, who are on spring break, bringing to mind a vacation she took to Spain in 2010 with her daughter Sasha and some friends. She and her entourage paid for their lodging and entertainment. But the security cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, and the trip was criticized as lavish.," reads the report.

"Some conservative commentators are calling the China trip a junket. The White House will not say how much it will cost."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/no-r...nJXwTMym4.email (emphasis added)

Obama ladies touch down in China amid taxpayer uproar

"Ladies" apparently being a somewhat elastic term over at the Washington Times.

The Obama ladies are in the house — the house of China, that is.

First lady Michelle Obama, her two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and her mother touched down Thursday in China for what’s being touted as a weeklong feel-good tourist event, amid increasing murmurs back home about U.S. taxpayers having to foot the bill.

Mrs. Obama is supposed to use her visit for soft diplomacy only, and shy from the more controversial topics that plague U.S.-China relations, namely human rights and economics. No reporters accompanied the family on the trip.

“The nature of her visit is really quite different,” deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters ahead of the trip. “What the first lady really brings is the power of her own story, the power of American values.”

The White House also announced that Mrs. Obama wouldn’t field any questions from journalists she encountered in Beijing, which rankled some members of the press and the private sector, given her trip — complete with an entourage of about 70 — was still being paid for with tax dollars.

Mrs. Obama is due to meet with her Chinese counterpart, first lady Peng Liyuan, on Friday. Her travel mates will also head with her to the western historic city of Xi’an and the southern community of Chengdu, the latter of which is home to the nation’s famed panda bear reserves.

http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/m...axpaid-trip-up/ (emphasis added)

Only 70 people in her party? Good grief, that's practically bare bones. Think about it: She, her mother, her 2 daughters all need their own hairdressers, make-up artists, clothiers, assistants, scribes, videographers, tasters, etc. I for one am extremely pleased by her frugality.

This article, from NRO, complements the others about this trip. It just sounds like so much fun and should almost make you feel like you are actually there.

Elsewhere on WhiteHouse.gov, visitors are encouraged to provide their e-mail addresses so they can “Sign up to get the First Lady’s blog posts, videos of events and photos delivered right to your inbox” dealing with first lady Michelle Obama’s trip to China.

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-s...io-jim-geraghty

Wow! Do those Obamas have the common touch or what? I can't wait to sign up so I can start getting my updates.