It was a top headline on Baidu News on Saturday, March 25: while delivering a speech to the Canadian parliament on Friday, U.S. President Biden said he “applauded China for stepping up,” quickly correcting himself and saying he meant to say ‘Canada’ instead of ‘China.’

Biden was giving the speech in Ottowa during a state visit to Canada, during which the U.S. President and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau held bilateral talks discussing various security issues.

In the speech, Biden reaffirmed the strong relations between Canada and the United States.

At the moment of Biden’s gaffe, he said: “So today I applaud China for stepping up,” before correcting himself and making a quick joke: “Excuse me, I applaud Canada. You can tell what I’m thinking…about China. We won’t get into that yet.”

Ahead of the state visit, Trudeau spoke to CNN about U.S.-Canada relations and China, stating that there are areas in which they will “going to have to directly challenge China” on issues such as human rights and security. He said: “We’re going to have to continue to be wide-eyed and clear about the threat that China poses and wants to pose to the stability of our democracies.”

Regarding Biden’s gaffe, Chinese media were quick to jump on it and soon the incident spread on Weibo using various hashtags (“Biden Corrects Himself after Saying He Applauds China” #拜登称为中国鼓掌后改口#; “Biden Accidentally Says He Applauds China” #拜登口误为中国鼓掌#).

Chinese state media outlet Global Times (环球网) posted one of the most popular posts on the matter, which included a video of the moment, receiving over 82,000 likes.

But other big accounts, such as the Communist Youth League, also posted about the moment.

“Even if he dreams, he still thinks of China,” one top comment said, with others replying things such as: “He just can’t keep China out of his mouth.”

Some people also suggested it was a Freudian slip, and that Biden actually said what he was thinking: “Finally he said what he feels!” and “he loves China.”

China’s Communist Youth League also posted a meme about Biden allegedly also saying “US-China relations” instead of “US-Canada relations” during a bilateral meeting in 2021.

At one time in 2022, Biden apparently also mixed up “Ukraine” and “China” during a speech.

By now, Biden’s mix-ups and mistakes have become a regular occurrence, something that was already covered by The New York Times as early as 2019.

One meme on Chinese social media featured Joe Biden and Donald Trump side by side wearing a 1960s PLA uniform, the flag of the Communist Party in the background.

Trump was previously also jokingly called “Comrade Trump” on Chinese social media, saying he was the man “making China great again,” suggesting that his policies and actions inadvertently contributed to China’s rise. For this reason, he was also nicknamed “Build the Country Trump” (川建国) and ‘Comrade Jianguo’ (建国同志 [Comrade Build-Country]).

An older Trump meme, see Twitter thread here.

For a similar reason, Biden is now also nicknamed “Boosting China Biden” (拜振华). Both ‘Build the Country Trump’ and ‘Boosting China Biden’ are written in such ways that they could pass as Chinese names, which is part of the joke.

Some netizens playfully warned Biden and Trump about being careful not to give themselves away: “Please, comrades, be careful about hiding your true identity!”

“Comrade Boost China Biden, thanks for your hard work,” another jokingly wrote.

By Manya Koetse 

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By Manya Koetse 

With contributions by Miranda Barnes

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As Chinese experts and local authorities across the country are thinking of new ways to encourage couples to have more children in light of China’s dropping birth rates, this latest measure announced by Shanxi’s Zhezhou County has sparked controversy.

Dropping birth rates have been a major concern for Chinese authorities for years now, and in light of the recent Two Sessions and its aftermath, it has become a bigger topic of discussion on Chinese social media.

To encourage young people to marry and have more children, various initiatives have been suggested or implemented, with a particular focus on the role education plays in this matter.

One recent proposal from an expert has been to shorten the education period as a means to promote China’s birth rates. This includes the idea of eliminating the middle school entrance exam to reduce two years of elementary and middle school education to allow young people to start their post-graduate life at an earlier age.

Earlier this month, another measure that also focuses on education in the context of boosting birth rates sparked heated debates on Weibo.

The measure was introduced by the local government of Zezhou County, a county in the southeast of Shanxi province. The idea entails that families of two children or more will receive benefits in education; their second or third child would get ten additional points in their senior high school exams (zhongkao 中考).

The related hashtag, titled “Second or Third Children from Shanxi’s Zezhou County Will Receive an Additional 10 points in the Senior High School Entrance Exam” (#山西泽州二三孩中考将加10分#) received over 120 million views in less than two days.

On Chinese social media, most netizens responded to this proposed measure with indignation, arguing that it violates the basic principle of exam equality.

In response, one popular legal blogger on Weibo called ‘Lawyer Zhuang Zhiming’ (@庄志明律师) published an article titled: “Shanxi’s Zezhou County Giving Families with Two/Three Kids Extra Zhongkao Points – How Did Such a Brainless Policy Come About?” (“山西泽州二、三孩家庭中考加分，如此弱智政策是怎么出台的?”)

In the article, the author vehemently criticized the policy, stating that it goes against the basic spirit of education equality and describing it as a “devilish measure against the times” (“逆时代的魔鬼之操作”).

In addition to being unfair to one-child families, the author argues that the policy also treats the first child of two or three children families unequally since they cannot receive the extra bonus points while their younger siblings can.

Many users on Weibo also agree with this argument, stating that the policy creates a situation where the first-born child is “inherently placed at a disadvantage,” “starting one step behind the others.”

The cover of the official notice from the Zezhou county government regarding their measurements for promoting the balanced development of population. Image from Sina Weibo’s post.

Other netizens also criticized this policy, viewing it as an extreme family planning policy. One Weibo post under the hashtag suggests that this policy is similar to measures taken during the one-child policy era and creates inequality to compel people to realize the state’s birth rate goals.

Another Weibo user stated: “When we were young, our parents were fined for having multiple children, while we watched families with one child or two daughters receive bonus points. Now that we’ve grown up and can’t afford to have more children, we’re watching those with two or three children receive bonus points.”

Some also expressed anger and frustration in the comments sections, saying these kinds of policies make them feel pressured to have children and actually makes them feel like not having kids altogether.

“Just don’t have babies at all,” one person wrote, while another comment said: “If we would treat humans as actual humans, we could avoid strange occurrences like this.”

In mid-March, Sina News reported that the local government responded that the policy is not active yet and is being implemented in “one or two years.”

In addition to the extra points for the senior high school entrance exam, the local authorities have come up with other measures that benefit families with two or three children, including exemption from outpatient registration fees in the county’s public hospitals, an additional sixty days of maternity leave for the third child, 50% off (second child) or no fees (third child) for county public kindergartens, and free after-school childcare services.

Although these local initiatives have drawn a lot of criticism, some people also applaud them.

Phoenix Weekly‘s Weibo account posted about all the measures taken by the local government, and one person replied: “This is the most effective policy I have seen so far. If Shanghai were to implement such measures, the birth rate would increase very quickly.”

Other netizens also suggested that the policy may not be as harmful as some claim it is. In response to concerns about the policy’s impact on education equality, some point out that the extra points are only added if students take the zhongkao for high schools located within the county. They, therefore, suggest the measure could actually decrease competition for urban schools, since there will be no bonus points for those entrance exams.

Another Weibo user trivialized the policy’s impact by suggesting that “there are no good high schools in the county, so [the policy] won’t have much of an influence [on education equality] at all.”

While the policy’s scope is limited to the county level and may not significantly affect the lives of most individuals, most commenters in these online discussions still see it as a challenge to the fundamental values of equality, merit-based education, and individual autonomy over family planning.

Many people doubt the effectiveness of manipulating the education system to boost birth rates and argue that addressing the broader socio-economic context is the only viable solution: “The government’s priority should be to ensure high-quality basic services for children and to maintain these standards. When people feel happy, they may be more willing to have children. Improving the quality of child-rearing and education is more crucial than increasing the quantity of children.”

By Zilan Qian

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