Biden threw into doubt China's ability to prosper on Thursday by saying the nation was "in trouble" during his speech at a political fundraiser in Park City, Utah.
"China is a ticking time bomb ... China is in trouble. China was growing at 8% a year to maintain growth. Now close to 2% a year," the US president said, misstating the nation's growth indicators. "That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things."
In reality, in the second quarter of 2023 the Chinese economy expanded by 6.3% year-on-year, showing faster growth compared to the 4.5% recorded in the first quarter.
"China’s growth rate has slowed to 6.3% this year, is still the highest in the world among major economies, and with only 2% inflation," Jeff J. Brown, author of "The China Trilogy," editor at China Rising Radio Sinoland, and co-founder and curator of the Bioweapon Truth Commission told Sputnik.
"No other country comes close. Even highly media-bandied India pegs 5.7% growth, but with 4.8% inflation. And the US? 1.1% growth and 3% inflation. These numbers make a mockery of Biden’s empty claims, which are just a crass deflection from reality."
Whats more, demographic problems also come into play, he argued.
"Many developed countries are having population problems. Nonetheless, China, being a socialist country, has plenty of macro- and microeconomic tools at its disposal to help alleviate the problem. Beijing is not sitting on its hands. Numerous laws and regulations are being passed to incentivize the citizens to marry and have children. It will take time, but their solutions sure beat the West's, which is to let in floods of illegal immigrants to fill the breach," the China expert continued.
Nonetheless, US inflation continues to challenge the White House. The US consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.2% from a year ago in July and up from 3% in June, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. The US mainstream press has drawn attention to the fact that inflation surged higher in July for the first time in 13 months due to the rent prices hike, suggesting that the battle to tame soaring consumer prices wouldn't be that easy for the US.
Against this backdrop, it appears that Biden's "ticking bomb" remark was aimed at shifting the focus away from America’s homegrown economic woes such as the debt ceiling debacle, inflation, and the collapse of major banks.
"China is the world’s biggest (PPP) economy, importer, exporter, manufacturer, has comparatively low national debt, and has massive foreign direct investment coming into the country, as well as investing internationally. The RMB is becoming normalized in cross-border trade. China’s economy builds and creates products. The US economy has been gutted by globalization, financialized, owing tens of trillions of dollars that will never be paid back, disintegrating infrastructure, and has grave social problems across the country," Brown said, adding: "It is not hard to predict which country is going to weather the coming global crash."
It's not the first time that Biden voiced disparaging remarks about China and its leadership. In June, the US president called his Chinese counterpart a "dictator" with the US State Department making it clear that Biden's wording wasn't a "gaffe" but a US establishment's opinion. Prior to that, Biden fretted and fumed over the so-called Chinese "spy balloon" scandal, which turned out to be a nothing-burger. Besides, the US president repeatedly poked Beijing over Taiwan, which is seen by the People's Republic as its inalienable territory.
Remarkably, at the very same time, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has repeatedly emphasized the importance of maintaining a relationship with China despite having disagreements on certain issues.
"With respect to the comments, I think President Biden and I both believe it’s critical to maintain communication … to clear up misperceptions, miscalculations. We need to work together where possible," she stated during a June press conference in Paris.
In July, Yellen conducted a four-day trip to China, aimed at mending fences between the two countries. It appears that the Biden administration has been playing a "dual game" with Beijing: on the one hand, Washington is trying to contain China's rise; on the other hand, the US leadership understands that the American and Chinese economies are still intertwined.
"Starting with the Obama/Hillary 'Pivot to Asia' in 2012, there has been less and less 'balancing' in US policy, and more outright confrontation towards everything China. While not as lunatic as the West’s sanctions against Russia, starting with the latter’s special military operation in Ukraine last year, Uncle Sam’s anti-China assault shows equal desperation. In both cases, the West is losing its 500-year unipolar, colonial-imperial hegemony across the planet. China and Russia are simply too big, powerful, wealthy and complementary as allies, for the West to keep up," Brown concluded.