Biden lectures Chinese leaders on “human rights”

John Chan: Biden lectures Chinese leaders on “human rights” In a provocative move that will further strain already tense relations with China, US Vice President Joe Biden made a point of sharply criticising the Chinese government over “human rights” in a speech yesterday to American business leaders in Beijing. Biden called on China to “open its politics and society as well as its economy,” so that people could “speak freely” and “challenge orthodoxy” and “newspapers can report the truth without fear of consequences.” He declared: “We have many disagreements, and some profound disagreements [with China], on some of those issues right now, in the treatment of US journalists.” Biden’s call for “human rights” in China is deliberately provocative. “Human rights” has been the political banner under which US imperialism has ruthlessly prosecuted its interests around the world, including waging wars of aggression in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. As the US has strengthened its military alliances and strategic partnerships as part of the “rebalance to Asia,” it has sought to justify this menacing network as the partnership of Asian “democracies” such as Japan, Australia and India, in opposition to the “authoritarian” regimes of China and Russia.

Biden’s remarks came [after] a tense four and a half hour meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday focussed China’s recently proclaimed air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea. China’s declaration of the ADIZ was in response to mounting pressure from the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” which has encouraged Japan to take a more assertive role in Asia. Beijing’s inclusion of the disputed islets in its ADIZ was a rather reckless step calculated to advance its claims over the uninhabited rocky outcrops. The US has exploited the issue both to intensify pressure on China, and consolidate its military alliances with Japan and South Korea. The Biden-Xi meeting did nothing to resolve the tensions.

In a rather chilling remark, he did not rule out war, but declared instead that “there’s nothing inevitable about a conflict with China.” In that context, he criticised China’s “sudden” announcement of an ADIZ as causing “significant apprehension in the region.” Biden’s threat was clear. Unless Beijing is prepared to accommodate to the dictates of the US imperialism, including guaranteeing the rights of American capital in China, the US will mobilise its diplomatic and military resources to thwart the interests of its potential rival, including through the means of war.