“Personally, I think Biden‘s speech was a very scary concession to the Chinese Communist Party.” Frank Gaffney, former acting assistant secretary of defense, told reporters in response to President Biden’s interview with CNN last week.
Frank Gaffney, Vice Chairman of the Committee on the Present Danger:China (CPDC) and former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense.
Asked in a CNN interview last week about serious human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party, Biden said, “Culturally, different rules exist in each country, and leaders in those countries are expected to need to act in compliance.”
Gaffney was interviewed Feb. 19 and said, “The president’s speech, it was typically incoherent. What he described was Xi’s determination to do whatever it takes to consolidate his power. But the U.S. president needs to express a different view than what he (Xi) is doing.”
Gaffney is also vice chairman of the Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC), a U.S. think tank, and founder and director of the Center for Center for Security Policy, a U.S. think tank.
He said, “It’s actually demeaning to the Chinese. It’s acceptable that mass extermination (as he expresses it) is happening to the Chinese. He will obey the instructions of this chaos and suffering. I think that is dangerous for our country and for this world.”
“The current Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, both expressed support for Pompeo.” On Jan. 19, 2020, then-Secretary of State Pompeo declared that the Communist Party’s crackdown on Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang constituted “genocide and Crimes Against Humanity.”
In a statement, Pompeo said, “After a careful review of the available facts, I have determined that under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), genocide was committed in Xinjiang against the predominantly Muslim Uighur and other ethnic and religious minority groups.”
At his nomination certification hearing in January, Secretary of State Blinken said he supported this certification for Pompeo. He said, “My judgment is that (the Chinese Communist Party) committed genocide against the Uighurs, and that hasn’t changed.”
A U.S. State Department spokeswoman reiterated Blinken’s position from the hearing on Feb. 18.
The spokesperson added that “the Chinese Communist Party has also committed crimes against humanity, including imprisonment, torture, forced sterilization and persecution, against members of the predominantly Muslim Uighur people and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang.”
“These atrocities shocked the conscience of the people and faced serious consequences.”
The White House, however, did not immediately respond to a reporter’s question in the Email – whether the Biden Administration agreed with Pompeo’s certification that the Chinese Communist Party committed genocide against the Uighurs in Xinjiang – on the issue.
Gaffney said that “the issue is still being evaluated” and that President Biden’s attitude “remains to be seen.
You know the president’s words are probably the final word,” he said. (His remarks to CNN) sounded like they fell in a different place. Whether that’s the end result of the assessment, I don’t know, but it’s an ominous sign.”
Gaffney said earlier that under the regulations, once the U.S. determines that the Chinese Communist Party has committed genocide in Xinjiang, it means the U.S. must take enforcement action against the Chinese Communist Party to stop the crime. “Under the Genocide Convention, the United States is obligated to take measures to stop the crime of genocide and to punish it,” he said. “There are some consequences that are mandatory.” “It’s important that this will have real consequences, and that’s long overdue to be put (into action).”
Columnist Thomas Del Beccaro also wrote that Biden’s remarks, expressed to CNN last week, were the most serious foreign policy blunder since Secretary of State Dean G. Acheson’s speech to the National Press Club on Jan. 12, 1950.
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