President Joe Biden issued a stern warning to President Xi Jinping that he will safeguard America from Chinese threats to its sovereignty during his State of the Union address, escalating a suspected spy balloon clash.
Biden slammed Beijing in front of millions of viewers in the United States and throughout the world on Tuesday, as diplomatic tensions with China escalate and fresh details of a vast Chinese balloon monitoring programme emerge.
Biden’s words were unusually blunt in the highly symbolic choreography of the US-China relationship, raising questions about how Beijing may respond, even though his tone spoke to a charged domestic political backdrop, as Republicans argue he was too slow to fire down the balloon.
In his speech to the House of Representatives, Biden stated that he informed Xi that Washington prefers “competition, not confrontation.” However, he said that the United States’ investments in alliances, military capabilities, and innovative technology had put the country in the best position in decades to compete with China and defend its interests.
“Make no mistake: as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to safeguard our country. And we did,” Biden added, alluding to the moment on Saturday when a US plane fired a missile that exploded the balloon off the east coast of the United States after it had spent days floating across the continental United States and Canada.
Biden’s remarks were made in a theatrical context and were intended to provide political cover. However, a president urging China not to violate US sovereignty was a stunning event that highlighted a significant geopolitical shift.
Moments later, when he lambasted autocracies and advocated for the superiority of democracies, Biden specifically mentioned Xi in an impromptu addition to his remarks.
“Name a world leader who would swap places with Xi Jinping. “Name one!” Biden was speaking about his Chinese counterpart, whom he visited last year in Indonesia and has known for years. At the end of a phrase that could be interpreted as dismissive of China’s stunning economic growth at a time when Xi’s image has been tainted by mismanagement of Covid-19, the president almost shouted.
Biden’s address was primarily about domestic issues. However, his speech came at a time of geopolitical upheaval in which the US is also dealing with another nuclear adversary: Russia. He praised the Western effort to fight President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and promised Kyiv’s envoy, who was present, that “we will stand with you for as long as it takes.”
A rare show of unity in Washington
In Washington, practically nothing unites Democrats and Republicans.
However, Biden’s remarks highlighted how resistance to China, which has been building for several years, has now become a rallying and unifying point in US politics. China has long waged a sweeping intelligence effort against the United States, employing satellites, cyber, and traditional collecting methods. The United States also conducts substantial intelligence operations against China. However, the sight of a balloon moving over the United States, visible from the ground and on widespread television coverage, embodied a potential danger to US sovereignty from China like never before, amid rumours of a new Cold War.
Biden’s candid remarks were particularly significant in the increasingly heated confrontation between the United States and China. For much of the last two decades, US strategy has been geared towards integrating China into the global system as a competitor rather than an opponent, including its admission to the World Trade Organization. However, given China’s massive economic growth and increased diplomatic belligerence, many Americans today regard that strategy as a failure. The United States’ turn to talking about setting guardrails for the relationship and the need to maintain the Western-led rules-based international system is viewed negatively in China as an attempt to check its rightful destiny as a world power.
Biden has expanded on former President Donald Trump’s hostile turn against Beijing, which was fueled by the outbreak of a global epidemic that originated in China, and has proposed sweeping new laws and policies that challenge China’s dominance. In yet another show of bipartisan antipathy to China, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has formed a new bipartisan House committee to investigate the supposed threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.
And Trump, demonstrating yet another escalation in domestic political antipathy towards Beijing, wasted little time after Tuesday’s speech in a way that implies that China bashing – a common element of presidential campaigns – will be intense in the 2024 campaign. This could exacerbate international relations and strengthen Beijing’s conviction that the US is determined to restrict its rise.
Trump’s campaign promised to implement travel and visa restrictions in order to “cut off Chinese access” to US secrets, as well as additional limitations on Chinese ownership of US energy, technology, infrastructure, agricultural, medical supplies, and other assets. It was unclear how Trump’s proposals would vary from those already in place. And none of the strong new talk – from Biden and Trump – acknowledges the vast and complicated ties between the US and Chinese economies, which would make full decoupling a costly process for both sides. A direct military clash or full-fledged war would be far more devastating to the world economy.
