US President Joe Biden urged his successor Donald Trump to tackle China’s “overcapacity” and dominance in clean energy supply chain, calling it a competition the US “must win”.
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In a departing message delivered on Monday, a week before leaving office, Biden said the US is in a stronger position in a long-term competition with China, and claimed that the Chinese economy “will never suppress” that of the US owing to his efforts in making the country more competitive.
“When I took office, you all recall, and the experts believe … it was inevitable that China’s economy would surpass ours. But we in this room said, no, we make the investments in ourselves, we protect our workers and technology. That will not happen now,” Biden said at the US State Department.
He also claimed China has become “weaker” thanks to the US efforts with allies in countering Beijing in hi-tech, trade, and the Indo-Pacific during the four years of his tenure.
“It’s clear my administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play … We’re leaving them an America with more friends and strong reliance, whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure.”
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Biden’s efforts to encourage US allies to jointly address the challenges that China poses economically and militarily, as its companies gain global market share and its naval presence grows emerged as a central part of the president’s foreign policy, has had broad support from Democrats and from some in Trump’s party.