Vice President Joe Biden’s defense of China’s one-child policy has yet to be mentioned in the print edition of the New York Times, even though the paper has devoted several stories to Biden’s Asia trip.
Edward Wong on Monday quoted Biden’s remarks on human rights from a Q&A session at Sichuan University, but overlooked the vice president's stunning comment on China’s policy of population control, which has resulted in forced abortion and sterilization: “You have no safety net. Your policy has been one which I fully understand -- I’m not second-guessing -- of one child per family. The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.”
Despite the Times blackout, the quotes gained circulation, forcing Biden to backtrack. On Tuesday The Daily Caller reported his spokesman’s spin that the vice president was actually criticizing China’s policy: “He was arguing against the One Child Policy to a Chinese audience.”
The only Times mention of Biden’s remarks that Times Watch could find was a post on the paper's “Caucus” blog Tuesday afternoon, when Republican candidate Mitt Romney attacked Biden for the remarks. But it didn't make it into the paper on Wednesday. By contrast, Parker's Monday afternoon post on the “Caucus” portraying Romney as hypocritical for expanding a seaside home made it into Tuesday’s print edition.
From Parker's post on Romney's criticism of Biden:
Calling China’s policy “gruesome and barbaric,” Mr. Romney said in a statement Tuesday morning, “Vice President Biden’s acquiescence to such a policy should shock the conscience of every American.”
Mr. Romney was responding to comments Mr. Biden made during a question-and-answer session focused on United States debt and entitlement reform at Sichuan University in China, in which he seemed to condone China’s policy of allowing families to have just one child in order to limit the country’s population. The policy has been linked to coerced abortions and forced sterilization, and has been challenged as a human rights violation.
“Your policy has been one which I fully understand -- I’m not second-guessing -- of one child per family,” Mr. Biden said. “The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.”
A fawning story Wednesday of Biden in Japan didn’t mention the remarks either.
