As the Chinese Communist Party becomes even bolder in committing human rights abuses, Joe Biden is quoting Mao Zedong, the genocidal former leader of China whom the Washington Post has called “the biggest mass murderer in the history of the world.”
During an online fundraiser on Monday night, the Democratic presidential nominee commented that “women hold up half the sky,” a saying he’s cited often and has suggested is an ancient Chinese proverb. “We’ve got to get real economic relief into women’s hands now,” Biden said.
“Women hold up half the sky” is a quote from Mao, whose philosophy is not worthy of imitation. Some experts estimate that Mao’s communist program killed as many as 65 million Chinese. During his infamous “Great Leap Forward,” an economic plan supposedly designed to bring prosperity, the Chinese people were forced to work in labor communes that resulted in widespread famine. Mao ruled as chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1949 until his death in 1976.
Mao’s horrific legacy didn’t stop Biden from quoting him on Monday. Neither has it kept him from quoting the dictator before; he’s used this quote from Mao at least four times previously. In 2015, as vice president, Biden tweeted the quote in recognition of International Women’s Day.
Women hold up half the sky, and they deserve every right & opportunity given to men. #HappyInternationalWomensDay pic.twitter.com/W575JD4DdG
— VP Biden (Archived) (@VP44) March 8, 2015
He also used the quote from Mao in a speech at the Brooklyn Museum in 2017, and again at Temple University in April 2018. Later that year, in September, CNN’s Arlette Saenz quoted Biden using the phrase again and attributing it to “an old Chinese expression.”
Biden talks about importance of strong women in his life: There's an expression, an old Chinese expression that I think we're finally getting to learn and I hope my colleagues in the Senate learn it in the next few days — Women hold up half the sky
— Arlette Saenz (@ArletteSaenz) September 21, 2018
Unfortunately, the human rights abuses of the Chinese Communist Party did not die with Mao. While Biden quotes the communist dictator, the Trump administration has sanctioned China over its mass enslavement and other abuses of Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region. The U.S. State Department has reported that “the Chinese Communist Party is using forced sterilization, forced abortion, and coercive family planning” against its people as Muslims are forced into “re-education” camps.
The Chinese government is also stripping freedoms away from the people of Hong Kong, thanks to a new “security law” that allows the government to bring charges of terrorism or subversion against dissidents.
