Republicans see Joe Biden’s dismissive comments about China as a weakness to be exploited, turning his foreign policy resume into a campaign weakness.
Biden has twice made comments downplaying the threat posed by China in the short time he has been running for president, contradicting Republicans and Democrats alike.
“Our workers are literally three times as productive as workers in the Far East, I mean, excuse me, in Asia,” Biden said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
“And so, what are, what are we worried about?” he said.
The former vice president expressed similar sentiments in an Iowa campaign stop in May.
“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man!” Biden told the crowd.
“They’re not competition for us,” he said.
That comment was roundly criticized, including by Bernie Sanders, a rival primary contender.
Republicans argue that American workers face a disadvantage because of China’s unfair trade practices and theft of intellectual property. Approximately 3.4 million U.S. jobs were lost to the trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2017, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center think tank, and the country loses as much as $600 billion due to Chinese intellectual property theft per year. President Trump has bet much of his presidency on confronting China and revising the terms of trade.
“While President Trump is serious about confronting China over their repeated threats to America’s economic and national security interests, it comes as no surprise that Biden, someone who has been wrong about every foreign policy issue in the last four decades, would look at China’s rampant trade cheating and theft of Americans’ intellectual property and conclude that China was not a threat,” Republican National Committee spokesman Steve Guest told the Washington Examiner.
Biden’s foreign policy experience differentiates him from other Democratic contenders, a fact he has touted on the campaign trail, but some Republicans see this perceived strength as a vulnerability that could harm him later in the campaign.
In addition to his China comments, the GOP has identified Biden’s advice against launching the raid that killed Osama bin Laden as a major blot on his record. Additionally, Biden’s vote in favor of the Iraq war could be a ripe target for Donald Trump, who campaigned against the interventionism of the Bush years. Republicans also note that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, an Obama administration alumnus, famously said that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
Defenders, though, say Biden’s comments are not a dismissal of the threat posed by China, but rather an endorsement of U.S. workers. Instead of mirroring Trump’s confrontational style, they argue, Biden could do better by investing in U.S. capabilities and rallying allies.
Ely Ratner, a former Biden adviser, told the Washington Examiner the China question doesn’t have to be framed as a zero-sum game.
“So the China challenge is not about holding China back, it’s about making America run faster. And so who has the best plan to make America run faster in the 21st century? And I think that’s the kind of debate we should be having as a country,” said Ratner, the executive vice president at the Center for a New American Security. “[I]f this is something that’s going to catalyze and mobilize the American people, and if it can help us sort through our partisan politics, then I think that’s a good thing for America.”
A 2018 Pew Research Center poll shows a growing majority of Americans have serious concerns about China’s growing economic power. Most Americans, though, do not approve of Trump’s policies to address it, according to a Quinnipiac poll. Despite these mixed feelings, it may be difficult for any Democratic challenger to avoid taking a tougher stance on China, according to Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in public opinion and politics.
“I think Americans are definitely in the camp of strategic competitor,” Bowman told the Washington Examiner. “And I think Democrats are going to have to be in that camp to be successful.”
