MIAMI, Florida — Joe Biden hammered President Trump for his approach to China, criticizing the former businessman for failing to understand the nuances of the Sino-U.S. relationship.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with Xi Jinping, more time with the leader of China than any other world leader has since, before we left office. I haven’t seen him since then,” the former vice president said at a Miami fundraiser Sunday evening.
“The way [Trump] has not only mischaracterized and mishandled that relationship — he’s not a good guy, but you’ve got to know who he is and what the problems are and what you have to deal with. He’s coming at it the whole wrong way,” he continued.
Biden, a longtime former member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and now the front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has come under repeated scrutiny for downplaying economic dangers presented by China.
“What are we doing? We’re walking around with our heads down, ‘Woe is me,'” he said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire in May. “No other nation can catch us, including China. I got criticized for saying that. I’ve spent as much time with [Chinese President] Xi Jinping as any world leader has.”
At an event in Iowa that same month, Biden argued that China wasn’t a competitor to the United States.
“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man,” Biden said at the time. “They’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us.”
Trump’s China policy was a target of the 2020 Democratic presidential field during last week’s debate in Houston as the trade war between the two countries continues to have repercussions for the stock market, as well as American producers, manufacturers, and consumers. Many of the White House hopefuls seized on an SSRS poll conducted by CNN that found registered voters were starting to lose faith in Trump’s handling of the economy.
