Mona Charen on VP Joe Biden

Wow, Mona Charen gives VP Joe Biden a lecture — on the basics:

This was not a gaffe. This was a disgrace. In a speech at Sichuan University, Vice President Joe Biden said, “Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing — of one child per family.” But, he continued, this policy is creating demographic difficulties, such that “one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.”

Following criticism, Biden’s spokesperson, Kendra Barkoff, insisted that Biden, along with the entire Obama administration, finds the Chinese government’s population-control regime “repugnant.” But she seemed confused as to what the fuss was about. “He also pointed out, in China, that the policy is, as a practical matter, unsustainable. He was arguing against the One Child Policy to a Chinese audience.”…

Well, yes, but in the most abstract and anodyne way. Saying “I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing” is practically an endorsement — and certainly much milder language than the administration has aimed at Republican budget proposals. Biden didn’t condemn the immorality or brutality of a system of forced sterilization and forced abortion — he merely noted that the demographic consequences of thus drastically limiting the population would lead to problems for China’s version of Social Security. It’s as if, speaking in Damascus, he had told a Syrian audience that the government’s handling of protesters would lead to a decline in tourism….

The Chinese Communist government, which has killed more people than any regime in the history of the world (65 million according to theBlack Book of Communism), regards human beings as widgets to be manipulated or destroyed in the service of the state. Yes, they’ve developed an expanding economy by adopting free-market practices. But the regime remains one of the most vicious on the planet. It is deeply shameful that the vice president needed to be reminded of that.