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"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 Uighurs in western mountains of China, and Taiwan, trying to end the One China policy by making it forceful … I said, and, by the, he said, he – he gets it. Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow."

My original thought: Wow... Biden's stance is essentially it's a cultural difference.

I think I may have misinterpreted.

I didn't originally catch "and so the idea I’m not going"

Edited for correctness. Thanks for others who posted the full quote. I couldn't pull it well from quickly listening to the vid.

> Wow... Biden's stance is essentially it's a cultural difference.

This is a prime example of how taking specific cuts of quotes can lead to wildly misleading conclusions.

This is what he actually said:

"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 Uighurs in western mountains of China, and Taiwan, trying to end the One China policy by making it forceful … I said, and, by the, he said, he – he gets it. Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow."

And as you can see, he's saying that as POTUS, he must speak out against it because he is POTUS; that the US has different cultural norms than China and that we don't condone these things.

Thanks for posting the whole thing. Kinda hard to follow in the video.

>And as you can see, he's saying that as POTUS, he must speak out against it because he is POTUS; that the US has different cultural norms than China and that we don't condone these things.

But what is he saying about China's cultural norms? Your statement doesn't contradict this statement:

> Wow... Biden's stance is essentially it's a cultural difference.

They are focusing on what Biden thinks are Chinese cultural norms, and you are focusing on what Biden thinks are American cultural norms. The two statements aren't contradictory but also aren't complete.

Ultimately the press should ask for clarification and Biden should clarify. We shouldn't have to interpret like this. To my knowledge that hasn't happened.

> Your statement doesn't contradict this statement:

That statement is claiming that Biden says we shouldn't say anything because their treatment is just a "cultural difference".

Biden's whole statement literally says the opposite.

And what is Biden saying about how the Chinese leader should act based on history, expectations, and cultural norms?

>>that the US has different cultural norms than China and that we don't condone these things.

No, what is he is doing is reassuring Xi that while he may have to speak out publicly about how many US Citizens will disagree culturally with china, rest assured that while He is president there will be no action.

This is mind reading. I don't do that.

[flagged]

Can you please not post in the flamewar style to HN? This one combines personal attack, political flamewar, and nationalistic flamewar. We're trying to avoid all that kind of thing here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Then maybe you should consider banning political posts? Did you also reply to the individual defending our senile president who's condoning genocide? Allowing political posts and then turning around and telling people they can only comment in a specific way on them seems a bit counterproductive.

If you want to point out the fact that I called him high I guess you have somewhat of a leg to stand on for personal attacks. The other two things you listed as "flame war" material are literally no different than his comment defending Biden.

It's a little hard to say, although he specifically addressed the matter last week at a town hall meeting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JptyShvF2E8

This needs followup from the press and clarification.

"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 Uighurs in western mountains of China, and Taiwan, trying to end the One China policy by making it forceful … I said, and, by the, he said, he – he gets it. Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow."

Biden talking about conversation with Xi

"Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow."

On the face of it, this is shocking, disturbing, and disgusting. But I'm not prepared to pass judgment. Did he simply misspeak? Was there any clarification after the fact? Has the press followed up on this?

> What's Biden's position on this issue?

"Different cultural norms." Nothing to see here, please move along.