U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki, Finland July 13, 2023. Photo by Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
US President Joe Biden on Thursday called China a “ticking time bomb” due to its economic woes and said the country was struggling due to weak growth.
“They’re in trouble. It’s not good because when the bad guys are in trouble, they do bad things,” Biden said at a political fundraiser in Utah.
Biden’s remarks echoed comments he made at another fundraiser in June when he called President Xi Jinping a “dictator.” China called the remarks provocative.
The comments came shortly after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended a visit to China aimed at stabilizing relations that Beijing has described as at their lowest point since formal ties were established in 1979.
China’s consumer sector fell into deflation and ex-factory prices continued their decline in July. China could enter an era of much slower economic growth with stagnant consumer prices and wages, contrasting with inflation elsewhere in the world.
The United States, the world’s largest economy, has battled high inflation and enjoyed a robust labor market.
“China is in trouble,” Biden said Thursday. He said he didn’t want to hurt China and wanted a rational relationship with the country.
Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order that will bar certain new U.S. investments in China in sensitive technologies like computer chips. China, which has the world’s second-largest economy, said it was “seriously concerned” about the order and reserved the right to take action.
