Okay, the headline sounds like the setup to a bad joke, but it pretty much describes the scene in the picture above released by the Piaggio Group.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is in China this month to mark the 40th anniversary of his secret diplomatic visit in 1971 which paved the way for formalized relations between China and the United States.

Last week, the noted diplomat went through the city of Chongqing, one of China’s largest municipalities and home of the Piaggio Zongshen Foshan Motorcycle Co., a joint venture partially owned by the Piaggio Group.

Piaggio Zongshen Foshan took the opportunity to debut the Chongqing police force’s fleet of 30 police-spec Aprilia Mana 850 motorcycles as Kissinger’s escort.

Powered by an 850cc 90-degree V-Twin engine, the Mana is equipped with an automatic transmission as well as a semi-manual 7-speed sequential transmission and three engine mappings. The police version is specially customized with radio equipment, sirens and other equipment.

[Source: Piaggio]

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The Aprilia Mana 850 was introduced to the U.S. in July 2008, the Aprilia Mana 850GT was first seen at INTERMOT last November.  The GT version is also equipped with “Autodrive” that has three different mappings: Touring, Sport, and Rain or can switch to a seven-speed manual shift without a clutch, the GT’s biggest addition is a half-fairing with an adjustable windshield and a 2-channel Continental ABS system (850GT ABS).

Hit the jump to watch the Mana 850GT in action.

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