US President Donald Trump has often supported misinformation on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The YouTube channel of President Trump reportedly has a series of inaccuracies featured in his most popular video. The video entitled “With Joe Biden, China Is In Charge” has received more than 21 million views by the time of publication on Thursday. The Washington Post says it was released in mid-August and attacks the former vice president for his apparent record surrounding Beijing and China’s economic rise on the global stage. But it’s loaded with the same misinformation Trump has used against his 2020 opponent across other platforms. Trump’s most popular content on the site includes selectively-edited clips like many other videos shared on the president’s YouTube channel.
For instance, the video shared by Trump shows Biden had said, “We want to see China rise” prior to the following statement is displayed; “While China was crippling America. Joe Biden was standing up for China. In reality, Biden was speaking at a 2015 State Department luncheon about the strategic relationship between Washington and China. It was a US policy that existed before the former vice president served in the White House and which transcended multiple administrations. Biden expressed support for China’s rise, but the full quote offered specific context left absent in the advertisement of Trump campaign. It said, “Let me be clear. We do not fear China’s rise. We want to see China rise to continue to rise in a responsible way that will benefit you most, China because you have an important role to play”.
Biden also added, “A rising China can be a significant asset for the region and the world, and selfishly, for the United States”. Perhaps ironically, many of the quotes the Trump campaign used against Biden in its advertisement were actually part of speeches in which the former vice president was hitting Beijing or otherwise expressing US strength over international economic policies. Trump campaign ad quotes Biden and said, “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man”. The full quote again paints a clearer picture of Biden’s actual sentiments, “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the east, I mean in the west. They can’t figure out how they are going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system”.