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As China slid into deflation last month, President Joe Biden called the country a “ticking time bomb” that puts the rest of the world at risk.
“China is in trouble,” Biden said at a political fundraiser in Utah, pointing to its economic slowdown and the fact that people in retirement age outnumber those of working age.
“So they got some problems,” he said. “That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things.”
China has been grappling with deflationary worries and soaring youth unemployment. Chinese exports just suffered their worst fall since the start of the pandemic, while consumer prices saw their first decline in over two years.
Biden’s comments were harsher than usual, but he stressed that Washington is not looking for a fight with Beijing and is instead closely watching their activities.
The statements came a day after the White House restricted U.S. investments in China related to semiconductors, quantum information technologies and AI.
This raised concerns of China retaliating aggressively. “China firmly opposes the U.S.’ single-minded rollout of restrictions on investments,” its foreign ministry had said. “We have made serious démarche to the U.S.”
