China
Joe Biden on China
Entry updated to understand Joe Biden’s China stance.
Biden believes the U.S. should engage, but also guide China.
“Our top priority should remain integrating China into the community of nations, articulating the rules of the road, and then holding the Chinese government accountable for its actions,” Biden said in a 2001 speech to the Asia Pacific Council of the American Chambers of Commerce.
In 2000, Biden voted for the U.S.-China Trade Relations Act, which normalized trade relations with China.
Biden has called on Bush to protect United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur and urged the UN to designate China as “a violator of human rights.”
Hold China accountable; it’s capitulation, not competition
December 2007 Dem debate on NPR
Q: Many presidential candidates have talked tough about China and its human rights record in the past but, in the end, favor securing our economic interest rather than risk upsetting China. How would you balance human rights and trade with China?
A: I’ve been pushing, on the Foreign Relations Committee for the last seven years, that we hold China accountable at the United Nations. At the UN, we won’t even designate China as a violator of human rights. Now, what’s the deal there? We talk about competition in terms of trade. It’s capitulation, not competition. Name me another country in the world that we would allow to conduct themselves the way China has, and not call them on the carpet at the UN
Q: So you would call them on th carpet?
A: Absolutely.
Q: You would appoint a UN ambassador who would press for this?
A: It’s the one way to get China to reform. You can’t close your eyes. You can’t pretend. It is self-defeating. It’s a Hobson’s choice we’re giving people here.
China holds the mortgage on our house, to pay for war
Q: Is China an ally or an adversary?
A: They’re neither. The fact of the matter is, though, they hold the mortgage on our house. This administration, in order to fund a war that shouldn’t be being fought and tax cuts that weren’t needed for the wealthy–we’re now in debt almost a trillion dollars to China. We better end that war, cut those taxes, reduce the deficit and make sure that they no longer own the mortgage on our home.
Source: 2007 AFL-CIO Democratic primary forum Aug 8, 2007
An interesting non-China-related endorsement for Biden from David Brooks.
Hat tip to Rebecca MacKinnon, From On The Issues and the Council on Foreign Relations.
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