It's an irony that must make you smile. Just as US President George W. Bush's proposal to allow Mexican workers to take up temporary jobs in the US has been crushed beneath relentless criticism, Beijing plans to import several hundred Chinese construction labourers to work for several years just a few kilometres from the White House.
But the Chinese workers are not being whisked to Washington to pick lettuce or plant potatoes. They are being brought in to build China's sparkling new embassy. Designed by the Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, the new embassy is expected to open in 2008.
The 81-year-old Suzhou-born Mr Pei, who came out of retirement at Beijing's request to work on the project, is best known for designing the controversial glass pyramid addition to the Louvre art museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and Hong Kong's Bank of China Building.
Mr Pei has been working as a part-time consultant on the building for his company, the New York-based Pei Partnership, now managed by his son, C.C. Pei, who will monitor the construction.
Located on Washington's International Drive, a park-like enclave set aside by the District of Columbia exclusively for new embassies, the new Chinese mission will dwarf all 15 other foreign legations there. Until now, the largest structures were the Malaysian and Nigerian embassies, each with 100,000 sq ft. At a sprawling 250,000 sq ft, the Chinese embassy will be the biggest foreign mission ever built in the US, reflecting Beijing's swelling importance in the eyes of the US.
To fit the structure on the available land, China had to acquire the last three remaining lots in the complex, thus closing the area to any further development. Previously, no other countries had taken more than two building sites. China's location, between the Singapore and Israeli embassies, gives the building the centrepiece position on International Drive. As visitors drive in from Connecticut Avenue, the first embassy they see will be China's.