US President Joe Biden\u2019s comment about China being a \u201cticking time bomb\u201d referred to internal economic and social tensions that could have an effect on how Beijing interacts with the world, a White House official has clarified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden said at a political fundraiser on Thursday that China was \u201cin trouble\u201d and beset with economic and social problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChina is a ticking time bomb,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChina was growing at 8 percent a year to maintain growth. Now, close to 2 percent a year,\u201d Biden said, misstating the country\u2019s growth rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Data from China\u2019s National Bureau of Statistics showed the Chinese economy grew 4.5 percent in the first quarter and 6.3 percent in the second, with the gross domestic product (GDP) up just 0.8 percent in April-June from the previous quarter after a 2.2 percent expansion in the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden also said that he wanted a rational relationship with China.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday that one area of US concern regarding China was \u201cthe way that they bully and coerce and intimidate countries around the world\u201d by offering high-interest infrastructure loans and then seizing assets when countries defaulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden\u2019s comments<\/a>\u00a0have drawn a sharp response from Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu warned Washington against \u201cscapegoating\u201d Beijing and fanning \u201cdivision and confrontation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe oppose the US side seeking to make an issue of China, smearing China or talking down China\u2019s prospects,\u201d he said in a statement to the Reuters news agency on Friday, without mentioning Biden by name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liu said China\u2019s GDP growth continued to provide important support for the development of the global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China\u2019s state-run Global Times media outlet said that Biden made the \u201cdemeaning and smearing comments\u201d to \u201cdistract the domestic audience\u201d from issues in the US and to give his presidential campaign a boost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Global Times quoted Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, as saying that most US presidential candidates will take aim at China during the 2024 presidential elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China would be a campaign target to \u201cdistract voters from ingrained US domestic problems such as abortion, guns and drugs\u201d, Xin told Global Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The news outlet also said that despite recent high-level exchanges between US and Chinese officials, there had been\u00a0no \u201creal easing in bilateral relations\u201d between Washington and Beijing<\/a>. Kirby said the US \u2013 which also moved this week to limit outbound investment in certain Chinese sectors \u2013 had been consistent about pushing back against China\u2019s behaviours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve never shied away from calling it like we see it when it comes to [China\u2019s] behaviour, intimidation and coercion of not only their neighbours but countries around the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a difficult, complex bilateral relationship, the most consequential one in the world. The president understands that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t still a need to continue to improve our lines of communication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kirby did not comment on whether Biden\u2019s latest comments would scuttle plans for the US president to meet with President Xi Jinping later this year, possibly on the sidelines of next month\u2019s Group of 20 leaders summit in India. US President Joe Biden\u2019s comment about China being a \u201cticking time bomb\u201d referred to internal economic and social tensions that could have an effect on how Beijing interacts with the world, a White House official has clarified. Biden said at a political fundraiser on Thursday that China was \u201cin trouble\u201d and beset with economic and …<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,307,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asian-issues","category-main-news","category-172"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7198,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7195\/revisions\/7198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cSince the US side is unlikely to change its foreign policy on issues such as the Taiwan question, the South China Sea and economy and trade, and\u00a0especially the high-tech sector<\/a>, it will be more aggressive toward China on these issues,\u201d Global Times said, citing experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SOURCE:\u00a0AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"