WASHINGTON – President Biden warned on Thursday that the US should “step up” and repair its troubled infrastructure or be left behind by a growing China that “will eat our lunch”.
“Last night, I was on the phone for two consecutive hours with Xi Jinping,” Biden told reporters in the oval office after his first call with the Chinese Communist Party chairman.
Describing the call as “a good conversation”, the president expressed concern about the growing rivalry between Washington and Beijing for global domination and said the US was lagging behind.
“If we don’t move, they’ll eat lunch,” Biden said. “They have major new initiatives, important in the railway field and they already have railways that go easily at 225 mph.”
The changing US-China relationship is one of the biggest foreign policy challenges for Biden’s presidency and comes as China seeks to increase its influence abroad with its huge “Belt and Road Initiative”, which provides infrastructure loans. poor nations.
The Trump administration has taken a tough approach to Beijing, slamming Chinese-made goods at steep rates and vowing to return to a period of American prosperity.
Biden spoke of China’s growing economic power during a meeting with Democratic senators on investment in US infrastructure and said he had instructed them to begin examining how the US could fight back.
The president said the United States should reflect Beijing’s efforts on new technologies, such as electric cars.
“He’s working hard to do what I think we’re going to have to do,” he said.
“They’re investing billions of dollars dealing with a whole range of issues related to transportation, the environment and a whole range of other things, so we just need to step up,” he said.
During his first speech at the Pentagon on Wednesday, the president also revealed that a new Department of Defense working group will examine the US-China military position and “its growing challenges.”
