In his first press conference as the President of the United States, Joe Biden said his administration is going to hold “China accountable to follow the rules” and there would be no tolerance for human rights violations.

The president spoke at length today about what the country must do in order to hold China accountable regarding imports, exports, and human rights issues.

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“Earlier this month, and apparently got the Chinese attention, that’s not why I did it, I met with our allies and how we’re going to hold China accountable in the region; Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, the so-called quad. Because we have to have democracies working together,” Biden said.

“I’m going to invite an alliance of democracies to come here to discuss the future, and so we’re going to make it clear that in order to deal with these things, we are going to hold China accountable to follow the rules,” he added.

Biden also lashed out at the lingering human rights issues plaguing China.

“Americans value the notion of freedom. America values human rights. We don’t always live up to our expectations but it’s a value system. … And as long as you and your country continue to so blatantly violate human rights, we’re going to continue in an unrelenting way to call to the attention of the world and make it clear, make it clear what’s happening,” he said today.

Meanwhile, talking about the situation in Afghanistan, the deadline of May 1 to withdraw American forces from the Middle-Eastern country “is going to be hard to meet,” however, he adds that it is not his “intention to stay there for a long time.”

Asked if it was possible the US could still have troops in Afghanistan next year, Pres. Biden says, “I can’t picture that being the case.” 

Meanwhile, while being questioned about his immigration policies owing to the growing number of migrants at the US-Mexico border, Joe Biden announced 5,000 more beds will be made available to unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border at the Fort Bliss U.S. Army Base.

However, fluctuations in migration flows are common, regardless of which party is in power, as was evident in 2019 during the border crisis under then-President Trump.

President Biden said he should be flattered that people think there’s an increase in immigrants coming to the border because “they know Biden is a good guy.”

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But that’s not what’s happening, he said.

Instead, Biden argued the recent surge is a cycle. There was a similar surge between January and March last year because that’s when it’s safer to travel through the desert heat, he said.

“I’d like to think it’s because I’m a nice guy, but it’s not,” Biden said. “It happens every year.”

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Talking about the horrible conditions of the facilities in which the migrant kids are living, Biden said that he thought the conditions were “totally unacceptable” and said his administration is looking to find other locations for the children.

“That’s a serious question, right? Is it acceptable to me? Come on. That’s why we’re going to be moving a thousand of those kids out quickly. That’s why I got Fort Bliss opened up. That’s why I’ve been working from the moment this started happening to try to find additional access for children to be able to safely, not just children, but particularly children to be able to safely be housed while we follow through on the rest of what’s happening. That is totally unacceptable,” Biden said.

Meanwhile, earlier in the conference, the President announced a goal of 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in 100 days while addressing his press conference on Thursday at the White House. He will take questions on a variety of issues from the reporters at the White House.

The 78-year-old, who took over the presidency amid a deadly pandemic and political unrest, is the first President in the past 100 years to take more than two months in addressing his first formal press conference.