Commentary
The Biden administration declared in October, via its national security strategy (
pdf), that “Americans will support universal human rights and stand in solidarity with those beyond our shores who seek freedom and dignity.”
Does this pledge to stand with the oppressed extend to the people of China?
Judging by the administration’s muted response over Chinese citizens having taken to the streets in widespread protest of Beijing’s draconian “Zero-COVID” policy and the tyrannical Chinese Communist Party (CCP) behind it, it would seem the answer is “No.”
The White House, by way of a National Security Council spokesperson, delivered a
passive and oddly clinical message on China following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, focusing more on the efficacy of Chinese COVID-19 policies than the hardships faced by those laboring under them and the right of the affected to dissent freely.
Not that anyone asked, but the administration asserted that “zero COVID is not a policy we are pursuing,” that it might not prove effective for China, and that America favored its own “public health tools like: continuing to enhance vaccination rates ... and making testing and treatment easily accessible.” At best, one might see this as a meager attempt to highlight a relative American advantage over China in public health.
As for the Chinese protesters, the administration merely affirmed that “everyone has the right to peacefully protest ... [including] in the PRC.”
In a further dispassionate statement, on Dec. 5, when
RealClearPolitics’s Philip Wegmann asked Biden National Security Council spokesman John Kirby for the president’s “reaction when he hears protesters in China chant ‘freedom’ or ‘Xi Jinping step down,'” Kirby responded: “The president is not going to speak for protesters around the world. They are speaking for themselves.” He emphasized again that “what we are doing is making it clear that we support the right of peaceful protest.”
The question is, why the support for protesting in principle, but not for the Chinese protesters in practice—protesters who, as tanks roll down the streets Tiananmen-style, are undoubtedly putting their lives on the line in standing up against Xi? What is it that causes the Biden administration to tread so lightly as Chinese citizens decry a communist biomedical security state, under which their countrymen were left to perish—to be burnt alive
—allegedly behind doors the CCP regime sealed shut in Urumqi?
Surely this isn’t a case of the Biden administration pursuing a blanket policy of strict noninterference in others’ business. It has shown a clear willingness to wade into the internal affairs of all from the
Canadians to the
Brazilians and the
Hungarians to the
Israelis. It hasn’t been bashful in showing overwhelming displays of public affection and support for people facing down adversarial regimes, led by the Ukrainians.
Nor is it a case of the Biden administration fearing accusations of hypocrisy over challenging totalitarian Chinese lockdown policies that merely represent the logical ends of the liberty-eroding, economy-eviscerating, public health-undermining ones long embraced by its own officials. The administration made that clear when it focused in its initial statement on drawing a line between its favored policies and China’s.
Could it be that the Biden administration’s devotion to global human rights is conditional? Perhaps. The White House may well weigh other factors above taking a moral stance in defense of liberty-minded protesters against tyrants who threaten to massacre them, including perceived national security interests and economics. It could be acting out of fear with respect to China—fear of retaliation should it give voice to critics of the gulag-operating communist regime that constitutes America’s most formidable adversary.
The administration might also argue—although it has yet to do so—that there are better ways for the United States to support the protesters than to publicly cheer them on.
But there’s still another factor at play that looms in the background, yet which should be at the forefront of our minds when evaluating the administration’s foreign policy decision-making. That factor is the Biden family’s
dubious dealings with our greatest adversaries—led by communist China (
pdf)—in which family members allegedly monetized patriarch Joe’s public office for private gain.
We still don’t know the full size and scope of these dealings, nor to what extent, if any, the president, the “Big Guy,” profited from them. But it’s well documented that during and after Joe Biden’s time as vice president, a tenure in which he managed a China portfolio that
proved quite favorable to Beijing, his family exploited relationships with CCP-linked individuals and entities that generated an estimated
tens of millions of dollars in business for the Bidens. This, after a career spent at the highest levels of government in which first Senator, and then Vice President Biden, helped facilitate China’s rise to become our greatest adversary.
The Bidens’ apparent influence-peddling creates conflicts for Joe that compromise both him and America—yet he has never been formally investigated, let alone held to account.
And the “Big Guy” has, of course,
surrounded himself with those in senior positions who have similarly taken soft stances on China historically and, in many cases, themselves have dubious
ties to the CCP.
It’s yet unclear what will become of the protests in China. We don’t know how organized the protesters are, who may be driving them, what their ultimate aims are, how the CCP will respond, and who and what will prevail.
Americans can and should debate what our national interest demands with respect to China and the brave dissidents challenging its communist regime—including how and to what extent we ought to
engage in the information sphere and what we can hope to realistically achieve by public and private efforts.
But the president will have the final say. And on account of his family’s dealings, and his obfuscation about them, we must ask whether and to what extent his private interest impacts his approach to the national interest with respect to China.
One simply can’t sever the Biden family’s China ties from the Biden administration’s China policies.
Those courageously taking on Xi Jinping in the streets today may well suffer because of them.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
