{"id":1757759,"date":"2022-12-01T06:30:08","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T11:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1757759"},"modified":"2022-12-01T07:04:02","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T12:04:02","slug":"why-isnt-joe-biden-supporting-protests-in-china-and-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-isnt-joe-biden-supporting-protests-in-china-and-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Isn\u2019t Joe Biden Supporting Protests in China and Iran?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-isnt-joe-biden-supporting-protests-in-china-and-iran%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1757759&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Joe-Biden-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><strong>Biden Should Speak Out Forcefully for Chinese and Iranian Protestors:<\/strong> China\u2019s protests caught the White House by surprise. America\u2019s \u201cnear-peer\u201d competitor and top military threat hobbled, at least temporarily, by widespread protests was not something the State Department or the intelligence community\u2019s top China hands expected.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration\u2019s response was weak. \u201cWe\u2019ve long said everyone has the right to peacefully protest, in the United States and around the world. This includes in the PRC [the People\u2019s Republic of China],\u201d a National Security Council statement <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/11\/28\/white-house-backs-china-protesters-silent-on-xi-removal\/\">read<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>Once again, political appointees and professional diplomats responded as if by a computer algorithm rather than with an appreciation of the ideological battle in which the United States finds itself, the outcome of which will shape the fate of the rules-based order over the remainder of the century. The tepidness of the statement undermines any meaning it might have.\n<\/p>\n<p>The reason for the Biden administration\u2019s weak response is no mystery. After all, many of the president\u2019s top aides also occupied senior national security or diplomatic roles during the Obama administration when, in 2009, Iran also erupted into protest. At that time, protestors chanted \u201c<em>Obama, Obama, ya ba o na ya ba ma<\/em>\u201d [\u201cObama, Obama, you\u2019re either with us or against us\u201d] as the White House remained largely silent.<\/p>\n<p>President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/10\/barack-obama-destroyed-the-democratic-party\/\">Barack Obama<\/a> wanted a restrained reaction for three reasons. First, he argued, there was little the United States could do. Many in his inner circle further believed that to speak out in favor of the protestors might delegitimize them by playing into Supreme Leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/09\/rumors-are-swirling-that-irans-khamenei-is-near-death-time-to-pause-nuke-negotiations\/\">Ali Khamenei<\/a>\u2019s accusation that they were foreign agents. Finally, Obama had secretly reached out to Khamenei and did not want the Iranian supreme leader to use statements against his regime as an excuse not to negotiate.\n<\/p>\n<p>In each case, Obama was wrong. Unfortunately, Obama alumni in the Biden administration today repeat the same mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>First (and most important), the United States can speak on behalf of principle beyond the right of peaceful protest. The battle today is for the liberal order. The White House, for example, might speak about the virtues of democracy, government accountability, and freedom. The issue across <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/taiwan-would-china-dare-invade\/\">China<\/a> is not simply the people\u2019s right to protest, but rather the abuses of power that lead the Chinese people down this path. It is about individual liberty. The Chinese Communist Party repeatedly argues that its system is superior to Western democracy. Over the years, they have found some journalists and academics\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/tom-friedmans-warped-love-affair-with-communist-china\/\">Tom Friedman<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobalist.com\/jeffrey-sachs-xi-jinping-china-united-states-propaganda\/\">Jeffrey Sachs<\/a>\u2014whose columns and statements seem to amplify such arguments.\n<\/p>\n<p>Now is Biden\u2019s time to show Western democracy to be superior. Whatever internecine disputes Democrats and Republicans might have had with regard to the response to COVID-19, pale in comparison to the competition between Western liberalism and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/america-needs-a-real-ambassador-to-china-not-to-the-ccp\/\">Chinese Communist Party<\/a> autocracy. The Chinese public senses, and Biden should speak about how both Democratic and Republican policy responses were superior to what President Xi Jinping now imposes. Democracies learn from mistakes rather than bend society to the ego of a single man. Even when threatened by the ego of a man like President Donald Trump, in America the rule of law prevails. Biden should further explain how China is a great civilization and has much about which to be proud, but the Chinese Communist Party does not represent its apex. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/sino-vietnamese-war-of-1979-can-teach-us-lessons-about-a-taiwan-war\/\">Taiwan<\/a> and, previously Hong Kong, both show that democracy and Chinese culture are not mutually exclusive. The same points are also true with regard to Iran versus the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/06\/irgc-iran-what-makes-it-dangerous\/\">Islamic Republic<\/a>. The two are not and have never been synonymous. Iranians deserve freedom. They are ready for it. They should understand that Americans cheer for their freedom.<\/p>\n<p>This brings us to the idea that offering moral support to protestors delegitimizes them. This is simply wrong. Protestors around the globe carry signs in English because they want to communicate with and receive the acknowledgment of the outside world. At the same time, dictators try to tar them with the accusation of foreign support regardless about whether they receive it or not. To deny them support is to play into the dictatorships\u2019 hands by helping Beijing and Tehran isolate the protests.\n<\/p>\n<p>Obama\u2019s outreach to Iran was always na\u00efve. Jake Sullivan, who as an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was its initiator, was na\u00efve to believe both the sincerity of so-called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/lack-of-defections-proves-iran-reformists-insincerity\">regime reformists<\/a> and the idea that engagement could tip the internal balance in Iranian elections from hardliners to reformists. In reality, the Iranians played him like a fiddle in an elaborate game of good cop-bad cop. Today, Special Envoy Rob Malley and Climate Czar John Kerry repeat Obama\u2019s past error by prioritizing diplomacy with autocrats over human rights and the aspiration of freedom of the Iranian and Chinese peoples.\n<\/p>\n<p>The crisis no one saw coming during the campaign shapes the foreign policy legacy of almost every administration. For Ronald Reagan, it was the end of the Cold War. For George H.W. Bush, it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/01\/russias-desert-storm-putins-plan-to-use-americas-military-playbook-against-ukraine\/\">Kuwait<\/a>. Bill Clinton had the Balkans, George W. Bush had 9\/11, Barack Obama had Syria and Libya, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/did-kanye-west-end-donald-trumps-2024-campaign-for-good\/\">Donald Trump<\/a> had COVID-19. Biden\u2019s moment is now. He must choose: Will he advocate for the rules-based order against those who would dismantle it, or will he essentially forfeit his opportunity to defend and advance freedom and liberty worldwide.<\/p>\n<p><em><span class=\"zox-author-page-desc left zoxrel\">Now a 1945 Contributing Editor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/profile\/michael-rubin\/\">Dr. Michael Rubin<\/a> is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi\u2019ite politics, including \u201cSeven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?\u201d (AEI Press, 2019); \u201cKurdistan Rising\u201d (AEI Press, 2016); \u201cDancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes\u201d (Encounter Books, 2014); and \u201cEternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos\u201d (Palgrave, 2005).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biden Should Speak Out Forcefully for Chinese and Iranian Protestors: China\u2019s protests caught the White House by surprise. America\u2019s \u201cnear-peer\u201d competitor and top military threat hobbled, at least temporarily, by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1757762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1757759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1757762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}