![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/us-china-300x168.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Turns out the Chinese are offended by the use of the word “competition” used to describe the relationship between them and the US.<\/p>\n
Biden, in his State of the Union address, referred seven times to “competition” between the US and China.<\/p>\n
China does not fear competing with the U.S. but is \u201copposed to defining the entire China-U.S. relationship in terms of competition,\u201d Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not the practice of a responsible country to smear a country or restrict the country\u2019s legitimate development rights under the excuse of competition, even at the expense of disrupting the global industrial and supply chain,” Mao said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Fox<\/a><\/p>\n
I am NOT a Chinese linguist, and hope someone here can help out – but I would bet that when you say “competition” you are not just talking about where two sides strive against each other, but connote that it is confrontation and a ‘winner’ vs. ‘loser’ situation. I do know it’s a different culture – a boss may yell at a subordinate but among equals, asserting superiority, getting pushy or confrontational, tends to make Chinese folks very uncomfortable. And Biden not only pushed that button (probably unintentionally) once, but seven times in his speech. This is the sort of thing that lays the ground for international conflict. Doesn’t start anything per se – but sets the stage.<\/p>\n
But Biden also jumped on the “vet suicide” bandwagon. He’s real proud of his administrations efforts in reducing vet deaths:<\/p>\n
\nBiden singled out Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough during his speech and praised him for work thus far to help prevent veterans facing mental health crises.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were losing up to 25 veterans a day on suicide,\u201d Biden said. \u201cNow we\u2019re losing 17 a day to the silent scourge of suicide \u2026 more than all the people being killed in the wars.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Uh, Joe?<\/p>\n
In the early 2010s, before reliable census data was made public annually by federal researchers, veterans advocates frequently cited the veterans suicide statistic of \u201c22 a day\u201d based off partial estimates of deaths from a small number of states.<\/p>\n
But those statistics don\u2019t match annual reports from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which show a 20-year high of about 19 veteran suicides a day in 2018 (6,796 veteran suicide deaths nationwide).<\/p>\n
The most recent statistics \u2014 from 2020 \u2014 put that figure at just under 17 a day (6,146 total deaths)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n