SALT LAKE CITY: US President Joe Biden said Thursday that China’s mounting economic woes are making the country a “ticking time bomb.”
“China is a ticking time bomb in many cases,” Biden said at a private fundraiser in western Utah.
Citing high unemployment and an aging workforce in the country, the Democrat said “China is in trouble.”
“When bad people have problems, they do bad things,” he said.
Biden insulted Beijing in June when he called his counterpart Xi Jinping a “dictator” — a comment the Chinese foreign ministry called a “provocation.”
Biden insisted on Thursday that he is seeking “a rational relationship with China.”
“I don’t want to hurt China, but I’m watching,” he said.
The United States recently resumed dialogue with China with a series of visits to Beijing by senior American officials, including chief diplomat Antony Blinken.
Blinken’s trip was aimed at resolving recent tensions surrounding a Chinese balloon, dubbed a “spying” operation, that was shot down by the United States in February.
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