US President, who visited Vietnam straight from the G20 Summit in New Delhi, said that he has held the highest-level talks with the Chinese leadership in months and Beijing’s economic woes would not lead it to invade Taiwan.
Biden said that he met Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the G20 Summit in which talks were held between the two countries in nearly 10 months since he last spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit 2022 in Indonesia.
Li attended the G20 Summit in New Delhi in place of Xi.
"My team, my staff still meets with President Xi's people and his cabinet. I met with his No.2 person in India today. We talked about stability. It wasn't confrontational at all," Biden told reporters on Sunday.
The two superpowers have been trying to thaw frosty relations this year after a spat over a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over U.S. territory, while fears of an economic slowdown have gripped Beijing.
Addressing a press conference in Vietnam, Biden said that the US has the “strongest” economy in the world and anticipated that China’s growth was slowing down due to a weak global economy besides its own policies. The US President, however, did not specify which Xi Jinping’s policies were leading to China’s slow economy.
Biden also called China’s economic situation a “crisis” and cited issues in the real estate sector and high youth unemployment.
"One of the major economic tenets of his plan isn't working at all right now," Biden said of Xi, without elaborating. "I'm not happy for that, but it's not working. He has his hands full right now."
The US President is heading into a re-election campaign in 2024 where his own handling of the economy and inflation has been cited as a central concern for voters.
Li has said that China should attain its growth target of nearly 5 per cent, however, according to the analysts a worsening property slump, slower consumer spending could mean lower growth.
Biden has attempted to hold talks with China to lower the tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan, the self-ruled island which China claims as its own.
"I don't think this is going to cause China to invade Taiwan," Biden said of the country's economic troubles. "As a matter of fact, the opposite, probably doesn't have the same capacity that it had before."
(With Reuters inputs)
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