Republicans accused President Joe Biden of being weak towards China after his first address to the United Nations General Assembly as leader of the U.S.
“Joe Biden failed to even utter our greatest national security threat by name today: China,” former UN ambassador Nikki Haley told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “While he bows to China on climate change, they’re committing genocide of the Uyghurs, suppressing Hong Kong, threatening Taiwan, and covering up COVID-19.”
Biden never spoke China’s name while giving his speech, though he did address the human rights violations against religious minorities in the Xinjiang region. He emphasized in his speech that the U.S. was not looking to start another Cold War.
“Joe Biden not only says that we’re not in a cold war, and he’ll fight to win it, he literally would not use the name China,” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas told Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Tuesday. “He was like a scared child from a ‘Harry Potter’ novel who wouldn’t say Voldemort’s name because he was afraid of what might happen.”
🔊 LISTEN: Why no mention of ‘China’ in President Biden’s #UNGA speech?
➡️ @PressSec: “I think it was indicative of [Biden’s] objective of laying out our proactive agenda of the big issues that we can work together on, including with China.” pic.twitter.com/iMReCNbDh7
— Chad Gilmartin (@ChadGilmartinCA) September 21, 2021
Stephen Miller, former senior advisor to the president during the Trump administration, tweeted it was “impossible to overstate the magnitude” of failing to directly call out China. (RELATED: Gayle King Confronts Jen Psaki On Biden’s Plan To Justify ‘Very Bad Behavior’ In Afghanistan, French Submarine Deal)
When asked why Biden deliberately left out the word China in his address, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said it was “indicative of his objective of laying out our proactive agenda of the big issues that we can work together on, including with China.”
Republicans also expressed frustration at Biden for not holding China accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic. Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, tweeted that Biden would hold the U.S. accountable when it came to the virus, but not China.
“China unleashed COVID-19 on the world, and by not holding them accountable or having a credible investigation, you’re only putting the world at risk once again,” Haley tweeted.
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