“We want competition with China, but not conflict”, declared an unusually 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.
“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 low unemployment rates, controlled inflation and falling imports from China to contend that “America is rising”.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
“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. They’ve got it backward,” he said.
Highlights from Biden’s 2024 State of the Union speech
Eliciting a standing ovation from his party colleagues, Biden pointed out that 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.
“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 get the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
The comments followed a year of attempts to reduce friction in the US-China relationship, which was riven by then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in 2022, multiple near misses between US and Chinese vessels near the island and the US military’s take-down of a Chinese spy balloon last year.
On Thursday, Biden opened by castigating Republicans for blocking aid to Ukraine and his “predecessor” for saying Russia could attack Nato allies, and then turned at length to domestic issues: lashing out at the January 6, 2021, insurrection, curtailed access to abortion and high prescription drug prices.
He celebrated legislation that he signed into law, the Chips and Science Act that was written to reduce America’s reliance on foreign chips, which are primarily manufactured in Asia.
Biden also acknowledged that the US had lost many manufacturing jobs under Republican and Democratic administrations, an issue that Trump blamed on China during his successful bid for the White House in 2016. The former president brought differences with Beijing to the forefront of Washington’s foreign policy.
Lauding United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, who was present as Biden’s invited guest, the president referenced renewed manufacturing in the “rust belt” state of Ohio, including an EV battery manufacturer.
“Thanks to my Chips and Science Act, the United States is investing more in research and development than ever before”, Biden said, citing pandemic-era shortages of chips used to make everything from mobile phones to cars.
“My policies have attracted US$650 billion in private sector investment in clean energy, advanced manufacturing creating tens of thousands of jobs here in America,” he said.
Shannon O’Neil of the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank, said that although the Biden administration had “tried to take the temperature down” on China with his “cooperate-where-we-can-and-compete-where-we-must” approach, the Beijing challenge was an opening to talk about his domestic agenda.
“The theme of this speech is ‘I need another term because I need to finish the job’, then that is [where there is] a lot of the China policy” particularly on actions such as the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, she observed in a webinar just hours before the president’s appearance at Capitol Hill.
Both of Biden’s signature legislations dole out billions of dollars in federal subsidies to create secure semiconductor and green technology supply chains in competition against China.
Tensions started to ease in November when Biden met Chinese President Xi Jinping in California ahead of the annual Apec leaders summit, a meeting meant to halt the steep decline in bilateral relations.
During that encounter, the US side emphasised the need to “responsibly manage competition” to prevent the two nations from escalating into conflict, confrontation or a new cold war. At the same time, they reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to protecting American interests, values and alliances.
The two nations agreed to establish a joint task force to curb the production and trafficking of illicit drugs, with a particular focus on fentanyl, which was responsible for an estimated two-thirds of opioid-related deaths in the US in 2023. The US Drug Enforcement Administration has identified China and Mexico as the primary sources of fentanyl trafficking within American borders.
The Xi-Biden meeting also marked the reopening of channels of communication between the two nations’ militaries, which China had halted in retaliation for Pelosi’s visit.
Washington has repeatedly emphasised the need to re-establish bilateral engagement to mitigate risks and avoid potential conflicts, and the record so far has been mixed.
Following the summit in November, China pledged to host up to 50,000 US students in the next five years to promote people-to-people diplomacy and strengthen relations between the two nations.
However, US State Department officials said earlier on Thursday that this goal was facing obstacles thrown up by Beijing.
One of the two countries’ longest cooperative frameworks – a 40-year-old scientific collaboration pact that lays out the terms for government-to-government exchange and opens the way for academic and corporate interaction – appears to be proceeding.
A spokesperson for the State Department told the Post on Thursday that the US-China Science and Technology Agreement was extended for another six months as negotiations to “amend, extend and strengthen protections” within the pact continue.
Washington has expressed concerns regarding the safety of its personnel, intellectual property, and critical data during the three rounds of discussions held so far since August last year, when the agreement was first extended for six months.
Daniel Simon of the Institute for China-America Studies, a Washington-based think tank, described the development as “a good sign” that both sides “remain fully engaged in trying to negotiate a mutually acceptable and beneficial agreement”.
Time to ‘cut off’ US outbound investment in China biotech firms: House panel
However, Washington’s efforts to improve relations continue to be hampered by structural disagreements on both sides over how to deal with global challenges.
On Thursday, Biden vowed that the US “will not walk away” and will “not bow down” against Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, warning that freedom and democracy were under assault at home and abroad in a jibe at Trump, who recently said he would let Russians do “whatever hell they want” if he returns to the White House.
Besides Chinese opposition to urging Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine, Washington has yet to secure Beijing’s support regarding the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
At a meeting in Bangkok in January, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan asked Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for support in condemning and countering attacks by Houthi militia in Yemen on US ships travelling the Red Sea shipping lanes.
The Houthis, a predominantly Shiite paramilitary group that took control of Yemen in 2015, are supported by Iran. In response to the Israeli attacks on Gaza, they have pledged to attack all ships in the region.
Sullivan hoped that Beijing, given its friendly relations with Tehran, could intervene to prevent Iran from further financing the Houthi attacks.
China takes swipes at the US but also makes ‘direct appeal’ for cooperation
However, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder last month said the Chinese “have neither proposed nor undertaken any operations to protect mariners or international shipping”.
Beijing has also been dissatisfied that the White House refused to review tariffs first imposed on Chinese imports during the Donald Trump administration as well as with initiatives in Washington to prevent Chinese access to US microchips.
The White House also praised a bipartisan bill introduced on Tuesday in the House by Representatives Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, respectively the chairman and ranking member of the House select committee on China, that would classify ByteDance’s TikTok as a “foreign adversary-controlled application” and urge the parent company to divest the platform or face a ban in the US.
A National Security Council spokesperson told The Hill website on Wednesday that the bill was a “welcome step” and that the administration intended to work with Congress to strengthen it.
Additional reporting Igor Patrick
More from South China Morning Post:
- Highlights from Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union speech
- State of the Union 2024: Joe Biden attacks Donald Trump in fiery election year speech
- State of the Union 2024: Trump offers lukewarm, glitchy response to Biden speech
- TikTok crackdown bill unanimously approved by US House panel
- US calls for Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, Japan to tighten chip curbs on China, drawing resistance from allies
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2024.
