The epic tales of Corn Pop’s young companion (POTUS46 complaint department)

[mgil]

Discussion as needed

[SnakePlissken]

This is a great name for a...you know..the...thing

[rjharris]

The fact that fucking Corn Pop was real is a sign that God is real and he loves playing jokes on all of us.

[5hout]

Transcript of China section:

COOPER: You just talked to China's president, I believe.
BIDEN: Yes, for two hours.

COOPER: What about the Uyghurs? What about human rights abuses in China?
BIDEN: The Uyghurs. We must speak up for human rights. It's who we are. We can't -- my comment to him was -- and I know him well, and he knows me well. We're -- a two-hour conversation.

COOPER: You talked about this to him?
BIDEN: I talked about this too. And that's not so much refugee, but I talked about it. I said, look -- Chinese leaders, if you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been the time China when has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven't been unified at home.

So, the central -- to vastly overstate it, the central principle of Xi Jinping is that there must be a united, tightly controlled China. And he uses his rationale for the things he does based on that. I point out to him, no American president can be sustained as a president if he doesn't reflect the values of the United States. And so the idea I'm not going to speak out against what he's doing in Hong Kong, what he's doing with the Uyghurs in western mountains of China, and Taiwan, trying to end the One-China policy by making it forceful, I said -- by the way, he said he gets it.

Culturally, there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow. But my point was that, when I came back from meeting with him and traveling 17,000 miles with him when I was vice president and he was the vice president -- and that's how I got to know him so well, at the request of President Hu -- not a joke -- his predecessor, President Hu, and President Obama wanted us to get to know one another, because he was going to the president.

And I came back and said, they're going to end their one-child policy, because they're so xenophobic, they won't let anybody else in. And more people are retired than working. How can they sustain economic growth when more people are retired?

COOPER: When you talk to him, though, about human rights abuses, is that just -- is that as far as it goes in terms of the U.S.? Or is there any actual repercussions for China?
BIDEN: Well, there will be repercussions for China. And he knows that. What I'm doing is making clear that we, in fact, are going to continue to reassert our role as spokespersons for human rights at the U.N. and other agencies that have an impact on their attitude. China is trying very hard to become the world leader and to get that moniker. And to be able to do that, they have to gain the confidence of other countries.

And as long as they're engaged in activity that is contrary to basic human rights, it's going to be hard for them to do that. But it's more much more complicated than that. I'm -- I shouldn't try to talk China policy in 10 minutes on television here."

News Coverage:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... AH0AC?il=0

https://nypost.com/2021/02/17/biden-say ... ent-norms/

Ignoring the terrible opening line, I'm pretty sure towards the end he confuses One-Child Policy and One-China Policy. Here's the cut down relevant bit:

"And so the idea I'm not going to speak out against what he's doing in Hong Kong, what he's doing with the Uyghurs in western mountains of China, and Taiwan, trying to end the One-China policy by making it forceful, I said -- by the way, he said he gets it.
...
And I came back and said, they're going to end their one-child policy, because they're so xenophobic, they won't let anybody else in. And more people are retired than working. How can they sustain economic growth when more people are retired?"

It's possible he transitioned from the general One-China discussion to a specific issue, but of all the issues to bring up, allowing immigration into China as a cure for the one child policy, that seems remarkably pointless.

Also, commentary-on-the-media story, both the linked articles and other articles I read re-cut Biden's talking points in the standard bullshit way.

[mgil]

Lightly skimming over the use of Uyhgur lives as free labor to support their bullshit competitive economic advantage is weak foreign policy.

I mean sure, you can’t tell the guy to GFYS for whatever geopolitical reasons, but it’s definitely something worth taking a stand on. Specifically when part of your platform was addressing racism and inequality at home.

[JonA]

Transcript of China section:

If you would have thrown a "bigly" and a "very best" and maybe a "huge" in there in a few spots, it would have sounded remarkably like Trump.

Eta: Well, minus the "Obama wanted me to be friends" part.

[GrainsAndGains]

After what's happened over the last few years with the Uyghur genocide I'll never wonder how the rest of the world sat by and allowed the Holocaust to happen ever again.

The entire world is basically united in their conviction that it's just not worth inconveniencing China over and we should all just accept it and move on.

[SquatsALot]

How about the fact that we've completely ignored that China has been doing in Hong Kong over the past 5 years? We've got a lot of catch-up to do in managing China. The previous administration focused so much on losing the trade war that they let all that other stuff slide, except for some blustery tweets.

Also, watched about 10 mins of that town hall, turned it off. Dude was rambling. Saw the part where he straight up told the questioner he wouldn't do mass student loan forgiveness, so that was good. But the China non-answer was terrible, not that I want a ton of blustery condemnations, but...yeah

[Hanley]

But the China non-answer was terrible

One of the more morally nutless rambles I've ever encountered.

[Skander]

at the request of President Hu -- not a joke -- his predecessor, President Hu,

But come on guys, isn't anyone going to give him credit for the 1930s vaudeville joke?

[Hardartery]

That was revealingly honest. He straight up is saying that he is saying something to China because the American people expect him to, just like Xi is doing his thing because he thinks that it's best for China. It's straight up saying "Let's go through the motions and not take each other seriously on any of this". Which, honestly, is about right. I never did understand why the US thinks they should have some say in how anyone else does things. They have enough of their own crap to take care of without being an international Karen.

[Hanley]

without being an international Karen.

Right? History has repeatedly taught us that shit usually works out just fine for repressed classes, races, religious communities if parent countries are just left alone with their moral vision/direction.

[5hout]

at the request of President Hu -- not a joke -- his predecessor, President Hu,

But come on guys, isn't anyone going to give him credit for the 1930s vaudeville joke?

That groan-worthy comment is so par for the course for Biden. Of course, still waiting for the Twitterati to notice that he just cracked an asian joke in a townhall.

[Hardartery]

without being an international Karen.

Right? History has repeatedly taught us that shit usually works out just fine for repressed classes, races, religious communities if parent countries are just left alone with their moral vision/direction.

I do volunteer work in said countries, and am in one right now. The US does not have a positive effect for the populace, ever, historically. They do however cause a great deal of hardship at times through their efforts to effect governmental change in these countries. So, saying something about it is fine, the things they do tend not to be fine for anyone. Within certain limits. Their eventual efforts in the World Wars could be arguably good for things in the long run. Coercion of other nations because they do not conform to the American ideals has not helped anybody thus far. But it might help smug people to feel like they did something meaningful - although in fact they did not.

[mgil]

We are more than happy to intervene on the behalf of some dogs:

https://apple.news/Aw4p-pJcoSAeyIERMjCUL4w

Not saying we actively do something about the enslavement and murder of people, but at least have the fortitude to say it’s wrong.

[aurelius]

After what's happened over the last few years with the Uyghur genocide I'll never wonder how the rest of the world sat by and allowed the Holocaust to happen ever again.

And what exactly would you have the US do? Go to War with China? Trade war (that has gone swimmingly!)? Economic sanctions (Iran is about to crumble at ANY moment) that the US could not possibly enforce against China?

What effective policy do you suggest the US take that isn't some kind of moral grand standing and doesn't put us on a one way trip to war in Asia?

I guess at the end of the day, when discussing the Uyghurs or the dozens of other peoples that are being killed and exploited across the globe, how many US lives is it worth for the US to do 'something'? Because in the end, that is what we are discussing. It is real easy for those of us that won't be boots on ground to call for action. Public admonishment is about all we have.

[Hanley]

Their eventual efforts in the World Wars could be arguably good for things in the long run.

Time will tell, time will tell.

[mettkeks]

We should all just stop buying stuff made in china. Oh wait, that's inconvenient. Lets keep condemning the actions of china and demand someone else does something!!!

[SnakePlissken]

You're all missing the main point here, everyone that hates America hates us because we're free. Duh

[hsilman]

Since economic policy to move manufacturing and such back to the USA is a non-starter due to price increases that would come from it(or subsidies, which are just price increases assuming taxes have to be raised to support them), maybe we could do smaller subsidies to encourage manufacturing to move to friendlier countries? Or where the human rights abuses are more in line with capitalism, like low wages and terrible working conditions rather than genocide and slavery?