DIPLOMACY

Biden Lectures Chinese VP

China blocked U.S. religious freedom envoy.

Leave it to Vice President Biden to give a straight-talking toast to China's vice president, and likely future leader, Xi Jinping. “As Americans, we welcome competition,” Biden said during a State Department lunch. “But cooperation, as you and I have spoken about, can only be mutually beneficial if the game is fair.” Biden went on to lecture Xi on China's artificially depressed currency, jailed Chinese dissidents, and opposition to a U.N. resolution on Syria. President Obama made similar points during his meeting with Xi, though more diplomatically. Further complicating Xi's visit to the U.S., several rights advocates say a top State Department envoy on religious freedom was blocked from entering the country shortly before Xi's visit. Today Xi meets with Congress.