China Briefing | ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden is one of the few US politicians who’s wide awake about China

When the Obama-era vice-president said China was ‘not competition’ for the US, the backlash was enough to make him walk back his comments

But the challenges facing President Xi Jinping, from the economy to wrangling the country’s bureaucrats, are vast

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Joe Biden is a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Photo: EPA

Published: 9:15am, 11 May 2019Updated: 7:14am, 17 Oct 2020

AT A TIME when China-bashing can bring about a rare display of bipartisanship in deeply divided American politics, former US vice-president Joe Biden recently stirred up the hornets’ nest by playing down the threat from Beijing and suggesting it was “not competition” for Washington.

“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man,” Biden, the leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said at a campaign stop in Iowa on May 1. “They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the east, I mean in the west.

“They can’t figure out how they’re going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us.”

Understandably, Biden – who has repeatedly aired similar views about China throughout his career – has drawn criticism from Republicans, Democrats, and media commentators.

In an interview, United States President Donald Trump said Biden “is being very naive about China”.

Then-US vice-president Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015. Photo: AFP