Biden and China's Cultural Norms

I have mixed feelings about whether Biden should have taken China to task for its treatment of the Uighurs (and Hong Kong) in his first talk with president Xi Jinping.  I do not have mixed feelings about how he explained his failure to do so in a town hall:  his responses are reprehensible.  “Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow,” Biden said.  Yes, we are aware that China has no respect for human life and this is normal for their government, but that is emphatically not a justification for their actions.

Biden made it sound like China's human rights abuses are just a natural extension of their history of trying to stay strong and unified.  There is some truth in that, but historical continuity is never considered exculpatory, or even a mitigating circumstance, among Americans ready to denounce human rights abuses in other countries.  I don't always agree with the human rights gadflies, but in this case, I do:  China's treatment of the Uighurs is an outrage, and its ongoing threats against Taiwan are not only morally wrong but also a serious potential cause of a major war.

Biden could have explained his failure to berate China simply enough:  "This was my first conversation with Xi, and I did not want to begin our relationship too aggressively.  We did not discuss any matters in detail, so a reference to specific policy points like this would have been out of place.  We will certainly be bringing up China's human rights record in future meetings, and especially calling attention to it in international fora such as the United Nations."  Instead, he excused his own failure to bring it up by justifying China's policies, which is weak and not appropriate for a leader.

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