By Misty Severi
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) slammed the Biden administration on Tuesday, rejecting the White House narrative that downplayed two senior officials’ recent trip to China.
The San Diego conservative pushed back on a comment from National Security Council spokesman John Kirby that appeared to dismiss concerns about two U.S. officials visiting China on the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
“Once again, the Biden administration yielded to Chinese demands and got embarrassed on the world stage,” Issa told Fox News. “They can maintain it doesn’t matter, but make no mistake: With Biden at the helm, America is losing ground to Beijing. Pretending it doesn’t matter just shows the limits of their spin after the fact.”
The comment comes after Kirby denied the timing of the trip was a “misstep” on Monday and claimed that critics who are making a fuss over the timing of the trip are “making a whole heck of a lot out of nothing.”
The administration sent Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Sarah Beran, the National Security Council’s senior director for China and Taiwan affairs, to China to discuss “key issues in the bilateral relationship,” according to the State Department.
The trip occurred on Sunday, exactly 34 years after the massacre that resulted in the deaths of hundreds, and likely thousands, of Chinese protesters in 1989.
The Tiananmen Square protests, which began on April 15, centered on a call for less censorship by the Chinese government and greater freedom. But the protests, which stretched on for over a month, ended in a massacre by the Communist Party on June 4 when tanks and troops opened fire and crushed protesters. Official reports from China claim that 200 civilians were killed in the protests, but historians believe the real number is much higher.
Issa has also claimed that the trip gave a “major coup” to Chinese President Xi Jinping by sending the officials there on that specific date.
“This is no ordinary foreign policy stumble,” Issa said over the weekend. “It’s a concession demanded by the Chinese and granted by a White House and State Department willing to bend. It’s a major coup for Xi, and America’s position in the world just got weaker — where it matters most.”