Biden: China is a "ticking time bomb" China's official media: badmouthing China will only lead to a wall.
Washington.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday (Aug. 10) referred to China as a "ticking time bomb" when discussing the country's economic situation and challenges. China's official Xinhua News Agency responded a day later with an opinion piece that said "China's economy is back on the upswing," adding that "badmouthing China will only repeatedly run into a wall in front of the facts."
President Biden made the remarks at a campaign fundraiser in Park City, Utah.
In his speech, Biden cited China's decelerating economic growth, soaring unemployment to record levels and increasing aging. In many ways, he argued, China is a ticking time bomb. More seriously, Biden said, China "is in some trouble, and that's bad because those bad guys do bad things when they have problems."
It's not the first time Biden has criticized China and its leaders by being blunt and pointed. In June, he called Chinese President Xi Jinping a "dictator" at a fundraising rally in California. His action seemed out of step with the broader context of U.S.-China relations at the time.
The downing of a Chinese high-altitude spy balloon that drifted into United States airspace by United States forces in February of this year led to a rapid deterioration in United States-China relations and a breakdown in high-level contacts between the two countries. It took months of hard work before high-level contacts between the two sides were realized. Successive visits to Beijing by Secretary of State Lincoln, Treasury Secretary Yellen, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry, and Commerce Secretary Raimondo constituted what experts have called a "mini-sunrise" in the improvement of relations between the two countries.
At the same time, Biden's public denunciation of Xi as a dictator drew strong resentment from the Chinese side. In a press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning called it "extremely absurd and irresponsible," a violation of "diplomatic etiquette and the dignity of Chinese politics," and "an open political provocation."
Biden also assured the audience during his speech on Thursday that he was seeking a "rational relationship" with China.
There has been no official reaction from China to Biden's remarks.
However, China's official Xinhua News Agency published an opinion piece on Friday titled "Singing ill of China will only repeatedly hit the wall in front of the facts," which said, "China's economy has never developed in the midst of difficulties, grown up in the midst of wind and rain, and grown stronger in the midst of hard work. China has a clear understanding of the risks and challenges, China's macro policy toolbox still has enough options."
The article also pointed out that the negative rhetoric about China "is an ideological demon at work: unable to face the profound changes in the pattern of international power, attempting to shake confidence in China through the dissemination of negative rhetoric, hindering the pace of China's development."
Biden signed a presidential executive order Wednesday approving a ban on U.S. companies investing in China in sensitive technologies such as computer chips. This is the latest step taken by the U.S. government in restricting technology exports to China. The Chinese business community is nervous about this new measure, which will mean that it will be difficult for China to obtain new precision machine tools from the U.S., and that the gap between China and the U.S. will continue to widen over time.
So far this year, Chinese officials have released a series of data showing that the widely expected strong post-epidemic recovery has not only failed to materialize, but has instead entered the worst economic recession since China's reform and opening up in 1980, which lasted four decades. China's corporate profits have continued to fall, unemployment has piled up, imports and exports have shrunk sharply, and there has been severe deflation on both the consumer and production sides.
The central bank's July data on loans issued by banks, released on Friday, fell off a cliff, showing that almost all of the previous stimulus measures taken by the Chinese authorities have failed. Consumers and businesses have lost the courage to lend under all kinds of pressure.
Comments
Post a Comment