I always thought that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s reputation as a “gaffe machine” was unfair. Sure, he spoke off the cuff too often for a high profile politician, and yes, some of his statements were regrettable. But I’m a big fan of candor, something sorely lacking in today’s modern political environment.
Vice President Joe Biden warned on Monday that there is no way that China will be able to sustain its current level of economic growth because of what he called its “God-awful” one-child policy.
Biden, who will help host Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Washington next week, said that when he visited China in August, he made clear to Beijing that the United States’ fiscal problems were surmountable, and less significant than China’s stood to be.
“When you talk about, we have a problem with our entitlement programs, we are going to be able to handle that, but by God, thank God we don’t have your problem,” Biden said, recalling the trip that followed the U.S. debt ceiling crisis and credit downgrade by Standard & Poor’s.
“Because of that God-awful one-child policy they have, what happens now is in the next 20 years they’re going to have such an inverse proportion of the number of people working to the number of people retired that there is no way they can sustain that growth,” he said.
Let me reiterate: DAMN . . .
Just for the record, this was a genuine gaffe, as defined by Michael Kinsley as “an occurrence of someone telling the truth by accident,” in that Biden basically got his facts right. But to say something like that in public, and with this crappy timing, is unbelievable. And what was with all those “God” references anyway? He has to bring God into a discussion about economics and demographics? Very disappointing.
Biden also wins the condescension gold medal for this rhetorical turd:
[Biden] made clear he was not cheering for slower Chinese economic growth.
“I really want to see China continue to grow. Don’t let the fact that we are 2-1/2 times as large as your economy in any way dissuade you from continuing to work hard,” he said.
Cue the outraged netizens! And just to put this all in perspective, or perhaps make us slightly nauseous, Biden reminded us all:
“I’ve been sort of given part of the China portfolio here,” an apparent reference to reports that President Barack Obama has given him an expanded role in the U.S. policy toward China.
Hallelujah.
© Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. |
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