Michael Bloomberg's reluctance to call out China for greenhouse gas emissions and refusal to call President Xi Jinping a "dictator" has drawn ire on social media of late, as Mediaite reported.
"The communist party wants to stay in power in China, and they listen to the public," Bloomberg told PBS's "Firing Line" in September. "When the public says 'I can't breathe the air' — Xi Jinping is not a dictator. He has to satisfy his constituents or he's not going to survive."
Bloomberg was responding to host Margaret Hoover pressing Bloomberg on his pro-environment platform amid China's gas emissions.
"The United States currently accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions; China accounts for roughly 30%," Hoover noted, before asking Bloomberg, "Even if we get to net zero, how do you get China, India, and the other countries to be good partners?"
Bloomberg responded with defenses of China, which is currently mired in a trade war with the Trump administration and figures to be a point of contention in the 2020 presidential race Bloomberg has since entered.
"No government has survived without of the will of its people," Bloomberg said.
The comments resurfaced on Twitter after a reairing of the episode over the weekend, drawing rebukes from many, including reporters from The New York Times.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, another presidential primary candidate profiling as a moderate, has also come under fire for being a China apologist, making paths to the Democratic nomination at-times bumpy.
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