ANALYSIS – The massive protests against the communist Chinese dictatorship, and its draconian anti-COVID repression continues.
And so does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) crackdown.
As these Chinese ‘freedom protests’ grow and spread, hypocritical Western leaders, who until recently pursued their own, less harsh, COVID crackdowns and vaccine mandates, are showing their support.
Among them, is Joe Biden.
A Monday White House statement in response to anti-lockdown demonstrations that swept through major Chinese cities reads:
We think it’s going to be very difficult for the People’s Republic of China to be able to contain this virus through their zero COVID strategy. We’ve long said everyone has a right to peacefully protest, here in the United States and around the world. This includes the PRC.
Sadly, while he could be far more aggressive in his response to China’s COVID repression, Biden was doing just the opposite with earlier Canadian and American COVID crackdown protests.
Justin Trudeau’s authoritarian overkill in response to Canadian truckers was particularly egregious.
An unquestionably authoritarian move, it received criticism from the left, right, and center.
The leftist Canadian Civil Liberties Association called Trudeau’s actions “unnecessary, unjustifiable and unconstitutional.”
Reason Magazine’s J.D. Tuccille said at the time that Trudeau had a “bad case of China-envy.”
Yet, Biden wholeheartedly backed Trudeau’s repression.
As Reason explains:
The Biden administration urged the Canadian government to use whatever means it had to reopen border crossings barricaded by the so-called “Freedom convoy” and get a handle on the protests.
That’s according to revelations of an ongoing Canadian inquiry into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unprecedented invocation of Canada’s Emergencies Act.
Why was Biden so gung-ho about Trudeau’s crushing of the peaceful trucker freedom protests?
Reason argues that in part:
Biden embraced an expansive view of his executive powers to effectively mandate vaccines for millions of Americans. That contributed to his support for the suppression of Canadian anti-mandate demonstrations.
REASON added: “The only people who seem to support Trudeau’s use of emergency powers against peaceful protestors are the prime minister himself—and the Biden White House.”
And Biden’s strong backing of Trudeau’s repression makes his current defense of China’s protests all the more laughable.
It also erodes his moral authority to lecture the Chinese government now on the right of the people to peaceful protest.
As Reason concludes: “It’s also a lesson in how restrictions on freedom in one country can damage it everywhere.”
When America allows the crushing of political dissent at home and promotes repression by its liberal northern neighbor, it not only hurts us, it fuels more repression among our enemies.
This only helps authoritarianism grow globally.
