Beijing –

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday criticized China’s “unfair economic practices” and insisted he was doing a better job standing up to Beijing than his opponent in this year’s presidential election, former President Donald Trump.

Biden also touted other aspects of his China policy in his State of the Union address, including “maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” and revitalizing “our partnerships and alliances in the Pacific.”

Biden added: “I have made sure that the most advanced American technology cannot be used in China… Frankly, despite his tough rhetoric on China, my predecessor never intended to do this.”

Biden’s China comments made up only a small part of his nationally televised address and came a day after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi escalated China’s verbal attacks on the United States.

During the annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress, Wang accused the United States of trying to contain China through sanctions and insisted Washington had a “wrong view” of Beijing.

“The means to suppress China are constantly being updated, the list of unilateral sanctions is constantly being extended, and the desire to punish China has reached unimaginable levels,” Wang said in a seemingly orderly interaction with domestic and foreign media. .

Wang’s comments were in stark contrast to Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California in September. At that meeting, the two sides agreed to restart dialogue and collaborate on several initiatives, including stemming the flow of fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid, into the United States.

While Wang acknowledged that “some progress” had been made at what he called the “historic meeting,” he accused the United States of violating some of its commitments.

“If the United States always says one thing and does another, then where is its credibility as a big country? If the United States becomes nervous and anxious when it hears the word ‘China,’ then where is the confidence of a big country?”? ” Wang said.

Even as high-level talks resume, the United States has expanded sanctions on China over a range of issues, from human rights abuses to relations with Russia. U.S.-China relations are also strained over a range of other issues, including China’s behavior in disputed areas of the South China Sea, military intimidation of Taiwan and growing U.S.-China technology competition.

political stick

In his speech on Thursday, Biden reiterated that he wants “competition with China, not conflict,” while noting that the United States is “in a better position to compete with China or any other country in the 21st century.”

“For years, I’ve heard many friends, both Republican and Democratic, say that China is rising and the United States is falling behind. They’re wrong…America is rising,” Biden said.

“We have the best economy in the world. Our gross domestic product has grown since I took office. Our trade deficit with China has fallen to its lowest point in more than a decade,” he added.

As the U.S. presidential campaign intensifies, China is expected to receive more public attention. On Thursday, both Democrat Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Katy Britt, who issued a Republican response, used China to attack their political opponents.

“The Chinese Communist Party is undercutting American workers. China is buying our farmland, spying on our military installations and spreading propaganda through platforms like TikTok,” Britt said, referring to the popular video-sharing social network owned by a Chinese company Media Applications Inc.

“The Chinese Communist Party knows that if it conquers the minds of our next generation, it conquers America,” Britt said. “What did President Biden do? He banned government employees from using TikTok but created an account for his own campaign.”

U.S. lawmakers are renewing their push to pass legislation that would force Beijing-based ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months or face a U.S. ban. Some U.S. lawmakers have warned ByteDance could pass U.S. users’ private information to the Chinese Communist Party, but the company’s chief executive has denied the accusation. Previous attempts to ban TikTok have been unsuccessful.

But Wang Huiyao, founder and chairman of the China and Globalization think tank in Beijing, said that despite some recent developments, Sino-US relations remain more stable than in past years.

“We don’t want to see a downward spiral like in the past. Because if that happens, it could be very dangerous not only for the United States and China, but for the whole world,” Wang said in an interview with Voice of America in his office.

“I’m still cautiously optimistic,” Wang said. “Because people realize [after] If the United States and China got into a really ugly situation over the past six or seven years, the whole world would be screwed. “