During an address to the graduating class at the United States Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, President Biden appeared to quote the late Chinese Communist Chairman Mao Zedong in remarks about gender equality. In New London on Wednesday, Biden lamented what he considered the lack of women in the workplace commensurate to men, and told the class about “a Chinese saying” that summarized his thoughts — as he observed the USCG’s graduating class is notably one-third female.
“There’s a saying, used in a different context, a Chinese saying that says, ‘Women hold up half the world,” Biden said.