Republicans blast Biden comments

2011-08-23 22:40

Washington - Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney on Tuesday slammed Vice President Joe Biden's recent comment that he "fully understand[s]" China's draconian "one child" population control policy.

"China's one-child policy is gruesome and barbaric. Vice President Biden's acquiescence to such a policy should shock the conscience of every American," the former Massachusetts governor said in a statement.

Romney was the latest top Republican to assail Biden's comments on Sunday at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, regarding the controversial policy, which US critics denounce as enforced with forced abortions and sterilisation.

In remarks to students at the university, Biden said: "Your policy has been one which I fully understand - I’m not second-guessing - of one child per family."

"Instead of condoning the policy, Vice President Biden should have condemned it in the strongest possible terms. There can be no defence of a government that engages in compulsory sterilisation and forced abortions in the name of population control," said Romney.

His comments came one day after Republican House Speaker John Boehner, the number-three US elected official, said he was "deeply troubled" by Biden's words and that the policy "should not be condoned by any American official".

US President Barack Obama's "administration should be focusing on jobs for the American people, not encouraging foreign governments to utilise abortion as a means of population and deficit control," said Boehner.

The speaker urged the White House to provide "a correction or clarification" to Biden's comments.

- AFP