Once quick to defend the media from an “all-out assault,” President Joe Biden has not taken action in response to the closure of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily.
The arrests of the newspaper’s senior editors last week and seizure of its assets proved to be the final straw. Without leadership or funding, the newspaper could not continue to operate. Soon after, Apple Daily announced that it would close.
In the United States, members of Congress condemned Beijing for its role in Apple Daily’s closure. Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted that it was the “latest example that Beijing will stop at nothing to wipe out any remaining shred of freedoms in Hong Kong.” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley called the shutdown a “blatant and sinister move to suppress the free press in Hong Kong.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price issued a condemnation on behalf of the administration. As I am writing this article, however, Biden has not yet issued a statement himself, nor has he taken additional action in response to the paper’s shutdown.
Biden’s inaction is shocking. As a candidate, Biden rushed to defend the media against what he believed to be Trump’s “all-out assault on the media.”
“His efforts to undermine public confidence in the integrity of fact-based reporting violate our core American values and threaten our very system of government,” the then-Democratic nominee asserted.
And as president, Biden pledged to defend the press. In his statement for World Press Freedom Day, the president warned of “authoritarians” who “are striving to undermine the free press, manipulate the truth, or spread disinformation.”
“These attacks are nothing less than a threat to democracies everywhere,” the president forewarned. Biden ended his statement by recommitting “to protecting and promoting free, independent, and diverse media around the world.”
What about Beijing’s use of its draconian National Security Law to shut down independent and diverse media in Hong Kong? In response to Beijing’s closure of Apple Daily, Rubio stated that it was time for companies to relocate and for America’s allies to “impose severe costs.”
No such proposal has come from Biden or any other world leader, though. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the paper’s shutdown “a chilling blow to freedom of expression in Hong Kong,” but even his effort didn’t rise above merely urging Beijing to abide by its commitments.
The G-7 communique reflects this passivity. It reads, “We will promote our values, including by calling on China to respect … those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.”
There are no additional sanctions. No consequences. Nothing.
Biden’s reaction (or lack thereof) to the closure of Apple Daily shows that his previous statements about media freedom are merely empty platitudes.
