MARION, Iowa — Former Vice President Joe Biden talked down the threat of China to the United States and the global order, saying bipartisan concerns about the nation’s rise were “bizarre.”

“I get criticized occasionally for saying I’m not worried about China. They said the same thing about me in the 1990s and said, ‘Biden isn’t worried about Japan,'” Biden, 77, said to a crowd of roughly 200 people at a Monday town hall. “Think of China. I’ve spent more time with China’s Xi Jinping than anybody, or at least double the time.”