By John Chan
World Socialist Web Site - 6 December 2013
In a provocative move that will further strain already tense
relations with China, US Vice President Joe Biden made a point of
sharply criticising the Chinese government over “human rights” in a
speech yesterday to American business leaders in Beijing.
Biden called on China to “open its politics and society as well as
its economy,” so that people could “speak freely” and “challenge
orthodoxy” and “newspapers can report the truth without fear of
consequences.” He declared: “We have many disagreements, and some
profound disagreements [with China], on some of those issues right now,
in the treatment of US journalists.”
Biden said that he had raised the issue with top Chinese leaders,
including President Xi Jinping, after meeting with a group of US
journalists in China. Sections of the American media have complained
that China has refused to renew the visas of a number of journalists,
including from the New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, following the publication of stories critical of Beijing.
Beijing blocked the New York Times and Bloomberg web sites in China after their exposure last year of the huge fortunes of top Chinese leaders. The New York Times found that former Premier Wen Jiabao’s family had amassed at least $US2.7 billion, while Bloomberg
exposed the hundreds of millions of dollars of assets owned by
President Xi’s extended family members. The Chinese leadership is deeply
concerned that the vast social gulf between the wealthy privileged
ruling elite and the mass of the population can trigger social unrest.
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