LIMA — Lame-duck President Biden was relegated to the back corner of the annual family photo of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Peru, while Chinese President Xi Jinping enjoyed a front-and-center position next to the country’s president host, Dina Boluarte.

America’s leader’s petty humiliation came ahead of his Saturday afternoon meeting with Xi, who was celebrated with relative pomp throughout the APEC event in Lima as thanks for his country’s funding of a major new port on the coast Peru.

Biden, 81, whose increasing domestic and global irrelevance has earned him the nickname “super lame duck,” arrived last for the family photo before taking his stand among fellow leaders from behind from Thailand and Vietnam.

The order of world leaders is alphabetical by country, although a review of previous APEC family photos shows that national positions are not fixed. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump took center stage in two photos — once in the front row, once in the back — for the APEC summit in Vietnam, the only such meeting he attended.

This year, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Papua New Guinea Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso pulled back, maneuvering behind Boluarte and Xi.

Biden’s stance was a clear sign that world leaders no longer take him “seriously since Nancy Pelosi kicked him out,” Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) told The Post.

“They probably should have invited President-elect (Donald) Trump to fall. I’m sure he would have been in the center of the photo with Xi Jinping,” she added.

Added Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-New Jersey): “There are lame ducks and then there are the lamest. Biden has been a lame duck since he was elected. This photo is a metaphor for his presidency. A picture is worth a thousand words – and this picture says it all.”

Geopolitical scenography

Other leaders with front row placements included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and their Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim.

The dignitaries wore brown scarves, probably part of the summit ritual where world leaders wear traditional clothing from the host country for the photo op. At the 2016 APEC summit in Peru, participants wore long, brown shawls made from luxurious llama-like vicuña wool.

The White House insisted that Biden was not rejected, but acknowledged that several leaders were photographed “out of sequence.”

“It’s the same order assigned to APEC in both 2008 and 2016,” said White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett, citing former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s respective placements at the summits previous ones from Peru, when both were also serving their last year in office.

“This year, several leaders split due to protocol errors, but President Biden sat correctly in the seat assigned to the United States.”

Biden’s trip has featured a few minor humiliations so far, including a grand welcome for Xi and a noticeably lighter formal greeting for the commander-in-chief when Air Force One arrived in South America on Thursday for the 21-nation Pacific summit.

“It’s an embarrassment to our country — under Joe Biden, America is weaker, our enemies are emboldened and the world less peaceful,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). “Jan. 20 can’t come fast enough.”

Now they are heading to Brazil

Biden, who traveled with daughter Ashley and granddaughter Natalie, will go to Brazil on Sunday for an aerial tour of the Amazon rainforest before attending the G20 economic summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Before leaving Peru, Biden met with Xi at the Chinese leader’s hotel for the third and final time of his presidency.

Asked by reporters why the summit was not held at Biden’s residence, a White House official said hosting such meetings was “essentially a rotation.”

“Last year, the US hosted China at the Woodside summit. Whoever hosts chooses the location,” they added.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan were among the few US officials who sat down with Biden in front of Xi and their Chinese counterparts.

“The United States has recently concluded its elections,” Xi told Biden during his opening remarks.

“China’s goal of having a stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship remains unchanged.

“China is ready to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences, so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-US relationship for the benefit of the two peoples.”

US officials say Biden is expected to work to “responsibly” manage US-China relations and welcome a drop in fentanyl overdose deaths after Xi agreed at a meeting in 2023 to restrict exports of the opioid strong synthetic.

An estimated 223,000 Americans have died from the mostly Chinese drug in Biden’s first three years in office, and Republicans have faulted him for not acting sooner to stem the flow.

Trump, 78, has threatened to renew the tariff-based trade war with China, which during his first term was fought in an attempt to negotiate a new economic pact to benefit American companies.

The Republican president-elect also called for a global reparations conference for COVID-19, where the Chinese government could receive a trillion-dollar bill for its role in the origins of the pandemic that has killed more than 1 million Americans and about 7. millions worldwide.

Last year, Trump floated forcing China to pay $50 trillion in “reparations” for the virus, which parts of the US government, including the FBI, believe originated from a leak at a laboratory in Wuhan.