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‘America is rising’: Biden uses State of the Union address to push competition with China but not conflict
- Annual presidential address has Biden appearing vibrant and confident about US, including its partnerships and alliances in the Pacific
- Although Biden administration ‘tried to take the temperature down’ on China, the Beijing challenge allowed him to talk about his domestic agenda, says analyst
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Khushboo Razdanin Washington
“We want competition with China, but not conflict,” declared an energetic 81-year-old Joe Biden on Thursday during his last State of the Union address as US president before the country goes to the polls in November.
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“We’re in a stronger position to win the competition for the 21st century against China, or anyone else for that matter,” he said, presenting a passionate case for a second term in the White House.
Biden boasted of low US unemployment rates, controlled inflation and falling imports from China in contending that “America is rising”.
“For years, all I’ve heard from my Republican friends and so many others is [that] China’s on the rise and America is falling behind,” he said. “They’ve got it backward.”
Eliciting a standing ovation from his party colleagues, Biden said his administration was not only “standing up against China’s unfair economic practices” and for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, but also revitalising partnerships and alliances in the Pacific and preventing China from using most advanced American technology.
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“Frankly for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my predecessor to do that,” he said of former president Donald Trump, who appears most likely to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
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