Journalists in the news media are used to covering for Joe Biden’s gaffes. In the spring of 2020, the networks have been mostly maintaining silence over accusations of sexual abuse against the ex-vice president by a former staffer. But considering that both Biden and China are very much in the news these days, we thought it might be instructive to look back at another Biden blunder. On August 21, 2011, the Vice President gave a speech in China in which he seemed to endorse the regime’s brutal one-child policy, a regulation that has resulted in resulted in millions of forced abortions and the devaluing of the lives of women.

Giving a speech to Sichuan University in China, Biden said this discussed the economy and the debt:

What we ended up doing is setting up a system whereby we did cut by $1.2 trillion upfront, the deficit over the next 10 years. And we set up a group of senators that have to come up with another $1.2 to $1.7 trillion in savings or automatically there will be cuts that go into effect in January to get those savings. So the savings will be accomplished. But as I was talking to some of your leaders, you share a similar concern here in China. 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.

So there may be some economic concerns, but “I fully understand” and “I’m not second-guessing” the one child policy.

On the August 26, 2011 CBS Early Show, anchor Chris Wragge briefly referenced the “off-the-cuff” remarks, calling them "interesting.” But he didn’t fit them into a segment on Biden and China. Instead, Wragge directed viewers to CBS’s website: “Vice President Biden had some interesting comments over the week, and you'll find some more on that on our website, too, at earlyshow.cbsnews.com."

Although the August 22, 2011 edition of The New York Times covered Biden’s speech, the so-called paper of record ignored this ugly acquiescence to the communist regime in China. However, on The Daily Beast website, liberal columnist Kirsten Powers condemned the comments, saying, “"What’s next? Will he say he isn’t 'second-guessing' and 'fully understands' that women are stoned for adultery in Iran?"

Despite journalists mostly ignoring the comment, the Obama White House was forced to clean up Biden’s mess, putting out a statement:

“The Obama Administration strongly opposes all aspects of China’s coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilization,” Biden’s spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff told The Daily Caller in an email. “The Vice President believes such practices are repugnant.”

So as the 2020 race heats up, get ready for more examples of the press covering for Biden’s gaffes.

For more examples from our flashback series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.