“Give me liberty or give me death!” is the outcry in China, where the regime’s COVID-19 policies blocked emergency workers from accessing the scene of a fire and 10 people perished. Protests then spread to cities across China, with chants for free speech, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and even for Chinese Communist Party boss Xi Jinping to step down. That brought in the police, but protesters pushed back.
“I think in a just society, no one should be criminalized for their speech,” one Beijing protester told reporters. In Chengdu they chanted “We don’t want lifelong rulers. We don’t want emperors!” they shouted, another reference to Xi Jinping, but there was more to it.
“We all know that the reason why we have to keep undergoing lockdowns and COVID tests is that this is a political movement, not a scientific and logical response of epidemic prevention,” another woman told the press. “That’s why we have more political demands other than lifting lockdowns.”
Over in Washington, as the Hill put it, “the White House has been cautious about expressing support for those speaking out against the Chinese government, which has moved quickly to stifle dissent.”
When it comes to challenging Stalinist dictatorships and preserving liberty, America isn’t what it used to be.
“Let every nation know,” President John F. Kennedy proclaimed, “whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” JFK also noted that the Communists “put a wall up” to keep people confined in East Berlin. Those attempting to escape, in effect, said “give me liberty or give me death,” and many did lose their lives in the quest to be free.
President Ronald Reagan famously challenged Soviet boss Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Reagan’s U.N. ambassador, Jean Kirkpatrick was also an inspiration to the oppressed masses. Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov told her, “Your name is known in every cell of the gulag,” Stalin’s far-flung system of forced labor camps.
After Stalin died in 1953, workers in East Germany were first to rebel, followed by Hungary in 1956. The Soviets reacted with massive military force and also rolled in the tanks to crush the “Prague Spring” in 1968. In the 1980s, when Polish workers pushed back, the regime imposed martial law. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger called out General Wojciech Jaruzelski as a “Soviet general in a Polish uniform.”
The Chinese people caught wind of these developments and staged demonstrations at every opportunity. In May of 1989 the regime declared martial law and in early June, troops moved into Tiananmen Square and opened fire. The regime claimed 200 deaths but in a diplomatic cable British ambassador Sir Alan Donald said 10,000 had been killed. For a regime that murdered more than 60 million people, as The Black Book of Communism explains, that’s just a quick morning’s work.
In November 1989, less than six months after the Tiananmen massacre, Senator Joe Biden voted against strong sanctions for Communist China. In 1998, with the United States again poised to enact sanctions, Biden was part of a group of 10 senators opposed to the measures and a leading voice to bring China into the World Trade Organization.
In May 2011, Vice President Biden said he believed that “protecting fundamental rights and freedoms such as those enshrined in China’s international commitments as well as in China’s own constitution is the best way to promote long term stability and prosperity—of any society.” The vice president didn’t specify the “fundamental rights and freedoms” in China’s constitution, and his statement offered no criticism of the communist regime.
In 2012, Biden “got China.” By the end of his second term, China got Biden, big time. Like many Democrats, Biden stayed on the quiet side when China cracked down on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. In 2019, candidate Biden famously said the Chinese were “not bad folks,” and not even competition for the United States. In a June 3, 2020 statement, Biden called for “recommitting to the universal struggle for human dignity”—not quite the same as calling out China for brutal oppression and human rights violations.
With Chinese protesters again in the streets, and the regime moving quickly to stifle dissent, Biden keeps things on the quiet. The protesters could be forgiven for sharing Senator Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) view that Joe Biden is “highly compromised” because of son Hunter, whose creed seems to be “give me Librium or give me meth.”
With China, Hunter handled the business end for the Big Guy. If any of the protesters thought Biden was a Chinese official in an American suit it would be hard to blame them.
Stifling dissent is what Biden does on the home front, where anyone less than worshipful of the Delaware Democrat is branded a domestic violent extremist, domestic terrorist, a threat to democracy, and so forth. This rhetoric is advance justification for deployment of deadly force against the people. The FBI and National Guard already boast experience on that front, and Biden Junta zampolits, Soviet-style political officers, are purging the ranks.
Chinese protesters are now the inspiration for America, standing up to a genocidal Stalinist dictatorship crying “give me liberty or give me death.” Americans could soon face the same choice.
“Treason is normalized and Americans are treated as second-class citizens by their own government in their own country,” warns David Horowitz. “It’s time to stand up and be counted, because the hour is late.”