customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Robert Delaney

US President Joe Biden touted his economic and foreign policies on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday in a speech that symbolised the passing of his authority to Vice-President Kamala Harris and sought to draw a sharp contrast with her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
Focusing on a need to create greater opportunities for the American middle class through policies that support unionised manufacturing jobs and spur growth “from the bottom up and the middle out”, Biden’s message in Chicago aligned closely with themes that Harris previewed last week in her economic agenda.
In the only mention of China in a speech that ran nearly 50 minutes, Biden cited doubt over the inevitability of the country surpassing the US economically as proof of the efficacy of his economic policies.
“When I came to office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably surpass the United States,” he said. “No one’s saying that now.”


The Biden administration has championed legislation to address the loss of American manufacturing jobs shed over decades, an erosion that came to a head in the 2016 US election and helped propel Trump to victory.
That history has made China a driving factor in many of Biden’s initiatives, even when the country is not mentioned.
A significant number of those jobs vanished in a handful of “swing states” – including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – widely expected to determine the outcome of the November 5 election, as they had in the past two presidential races.
Trump in the 2016 campaign made China’s trade surplus with the US and accusations that Beijing deliberately sought to hollow out America’s manufacturing base a central part of his messaging.
The rhetoric translated into a trade war that Trump formally launched in 2018 plus a turn away from multilateral trade deals, a stance Biden adopted after winning the White House in 2020 and which his US trade representative, Katherine Tai, has called a “worker-centric” approach to trade negotiations and policy.
Keeping with a populist, pro-union message, Biden reiterated a claim that nearly 800,000 new manufacturing jobs have been created in America since he took office.

According to PolitiFact, a non-partisan fact-checking website, the number is largely accurate, but should take into account that “the first three-quarters of those job gains” represented a return to levels immediately before the coronavirus pandemic.
“With every new job, with every new factory, pride and hope is being brought back to communities throughout the country that were left behind,” Biden told the cheering crowd.
“Now you’re back once again, proving that Wall Street didn’t build America. The middle class built America and … unions built the middle class.”
That stance has kept Biden’s administration reluctant to negotiate into the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Instead, the president has pushed his Indo-Pacific Economic Framework to bolster economic engagement with China’s neighbours, an initiative that has drawn criticism for its lack of any tariff-reduction measures.
Aiming to bring manufacturing back stateside, Biden in 2022 signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a wide-ranging law that invests in domestic industries while also promoting America’s transition to clean energy.
The law dovetails with Washington’s efforts to remove Chinese companies from the supply chain for these technologies.

Biden also in 2022 signed into law the Chips and Science Act, earmarking US$53 billion in subsidies for US-based chip makers and prohibiting beneficiaries from significantly expanding semiconductor manufacturing capacity in “foreign countries of concern”, including China, for 10 years.
“How can we be the strongest nation in the world without leading the world in science and technology?” Biden asked in his speech on Monday.
“After years of importing 90 per cent of our semiconductor chips from abroad … private companies from around the world are now investing literally tens of billions of dollars to build new chip factories right here in America.”
Acting on national-security apprehensions as well as anticipation that Beijing would try to export its way out of a systemic economic slowdown, Biden has signed executive orders restricting the sale of cutting-edge semiconductors and other advanced technology to China and slapping a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese EVs.
Taken together, these efforts amount to “a real experiment in trying to slow China’s access to emerging American technologies”, said Dennis Wilder of the Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University.
“Too many American technologies have been given away to China … and there is a need to get our companies thinking far more about the security of their intellectual property and create government laws that really restrict some of these areas,” said Wilder, who served as the National Security Council’s director for China in the George W. Bush administration.
However, Wilder noted, the 100 per cent tariff on Chinese EVs and other efforts to completely block Chinese products “is beyond what’s called for”.

“There is obviously the question of dumping … but there’s also, on the other side, the fact that an excellent EV is being made and we can move much faster on climate issues by giving many more Americans the ability to buy them,” he said.
“I’m unsympathetic to huge American auto companies who have had every opportunity to get in this game, and if they want to get in this game, I think joint ventures are a great idea,” Wilder added.
While Biden spent much of his time drawing distinctions with Trump on abortion, racial animosity and other domestic cultural issues, on foreign policy, he suggested that his administration’s different tack brought Nato back from the brink of extinction.
“When Trump left office, Europe and Nato were in tatters. [Trump’s] ‘America First’ doctrine changed our whole image in the world,” Biden told the crowd in Chicago, adding that he spent some 190 hours during the early part of his administration working with European leaders to strengthen the defence bloc.
Biden also accused the former president of kowtowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and said Harris would stick with his hardline stance against the Kremlin’s war on neighbouring Ukraine, now in its third year.
The American leader has been one of the world’s strongest proponents for the defence of Ukraine, and worked with US lawmakers to get an aid package worth some US$60 billion dollars for the country passed earlier this year.
“Just as no commander-in-chief should ever bow down to dictators the way Trump bows down to Putin, I never have,” said Biden. “And I promise you Kamala Harris will never do it.”


Second assassination attempt against Trump raises questions: how could it happen again?

Suspect in new Trump assassination attempt is 58-year-old Ryan Routh

Trump or Harris? China, Hong Kong stocks offer a hint at their preference as US president

TikTok faces crucial court hearing that could decide fate in US

US presidential election 2024

Joe Biden touts policies for US middle class, says Chinese economic dominance not assured

Democratic presidential nominee Vice-President Kamala Harris clasps hands with US President Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention on Monday in Chicago. Photo: AP

US President Joe Biden speaks during a walk-through at the United Centre ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday. Photo: Reuters

US President Joe Biden poses for a selfie with guests following an event to celebrate the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on September 13, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Chinese electric robotaxis wait outside Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Hubei province in July. Photo: Bloomberg

Biden’s Democratic convention moment: opening act, not the main attraction

US President Joe Biden, left, and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. Photo: AP

Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia on July 30. Photo: AFP / Getty Images / TNS

Signage outside the United Center ahead of Monday’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Photo: Bloomberg

Pro-Palestinian delegates plan to push US Democratic convention for Israel arms embargo

A worker paints the stage on Sunday amid preparations for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

US Vice-President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event in Rochester, Pennsylvania on Sunday with her husband Doug Emhoff (left) Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz (right) and his wife Gwen Walz on stage. Photo: AP 

Signage for a pro-Palestinian protest ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, US on Friday. Photo: Bloomberg

Pro-Palestinian protesters take part in a ‘Not Another Bomb’ rally outside the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Harris implies Trump a ‘coward’ during Pennsylvania campaign appearance

US Vice-President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania on Sunday. Photo: AP 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Photo: AP

Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks to the crowd near Omaha, Nebraska, for the first campaign rally in his home state, on Saturday. Photo: Kyodo

Former US presidents Barack Obama, left, and Bill Clinton, right, cheer for US President Joe Biden during a campaign event in New York in March. Photo: AFP / Getty Images / TNS

Will Biden and Harris’ ‘historic’ drug price deal resonate with US voters in November?

Supporters cheer for US Vice-President Kamala Harris during her campaign event in Wisconsin. The drug price deal would cut drug prices that could resonate with US voters worried about the cost of living. Photo: EPA-EFE

US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris announced the drug price deal as they prepared to make their first joint trip since Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential election less than a month ago. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

Vice-President Kamala Harris is due to set out her own economic agenda in a speech on Friday. Photo: AFP

Biden brands Trump a ‘genuine danger’ to American security

US President Joe Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Saturday. Photo: AP

Biden goes for a bike ride at Gordons Pond State Park in Reboboth Beach, Delaware on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Republican presidential candidate and former US president Donald Trump at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia last week. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

US Vice-President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday. Photo: Kyodo

E Jean Carroll in New York in 2023. Photo: AP

News

China

World

United States & Canada

Knowledge

US-China Relations

Politics

Topics

US-China Trade War

US-China tech war & rivalry

Outgoing American leader’s speech at Democratic National Convention aligns closely with campaign message of Vice-President Kamala Harris


Outgoing American leader’s speech at Democratic National Convention aligns closely with campaign message of Vice-President Kamala Harris.


Joe Biden

Joe Biden’s China policy

US-China relations

Kamala Harris

Donald Trump

US-China trade war

US-China trade war: All stories

US-China tech war

Technology

China technology

Semiconductors

Renewable energy

Energy

Electric & new energy vehicles

US Politics

United States

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)

Nato

Vladimir Putin

Ukraine war

Ukraine