Joe Biden says he wants to stabilize tensions with China, but the US president can’t seem to stick to the script.
The troubled relationship had two relative bright spots this week. A long-awaited policy document curbing US investment to China in key technology was revealed to be far narrower in scope than some had feared, and President Xi Jinping’s government lifted a ban on Chinese tour groups to the US, paving the way for more people exchanges.
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Then came Biden’s latest off-the-cuff remarks. At a political fundraiser late yesterday, he blasted Communist Party leaders as “bad folks” and branded China’s economic problems a “ticking time bomb.”
“China was growing at 8% a year to maintain growth, now close to 2% a year,” he said, misstating China’s rate of expansion, which is actually nearer to 5%. “That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things,” he added.
It’s the latest example of the president’s unscripted comments undermining his administration’s efforts to mend fences with its biggest geopolitical and economic rival.
At a similar event in June, Biden likened Xi to a “dictator” and questioned the Chinese leader’s control over his country and its military. That came a day after his Secretary of State Antony Blinken had completed a trip to Beijing to ease tensions, kicking off a flurry of high-level visits to China by White House officials. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is slated to visit this month.
Those exchanges are ultimately geared toward engineering the next Xi-Biden meeting, which could be as soon as next month’s G-20 gathering.
One place where the two leaders could sit down together is at the APEC summit in San Francisco. Reports Biden plans to blacklist sanctioned Hong Kong leader John Lee from the November meeting, however, have thrown Xi’s attendance into question.
It all goes to show that, whatever the desire for improved ties, the road to easing tensions remains a bumpy one. — Jenni Marsh