President Joe Biden claimed that one of his achievements in foreign policy was that China’s economy was little more on pace to surpass the United States ‘ economy during his address to the nation about his decision to withdraw from the race for re-election this year. The truth is the Biden administration’s China scheme has been a disappointment and China’s economic decline has been self-inflicted.
Many people were taught that China would immediately overtake the United States as the country’s strong economic force. Due to the economic policies of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, however, that situation seems less good right now.
Xi consciously forced China again to the communist economic model that Mao had envisioned by placing the Chinese Communist Party and he as the leader and managing China’s market through central planning, a deeply suspicious of companies and financial reform. Additionally, Xi values his devotion more than his ability, and he places a premium on national security over economic development.
Minxin Pei, a Claremont McKenna College teacher and well-known China observer, pointed out:” Xi’s centralization of power has caused a crisis of , confidence in China’s business never seen since 1978, after Mao Zedong’s death”. Thus, China’s economic growth rates have started declining from double-digits in the’ 90s and first 2000s to single-digits since Xi took power in 2013, much before Biden became president of the United States.
Traders and Action
China’s financial problems have gotten worse in recent years as a result of a number of factors. The unsettling “disappearances” of well-known Chinese tycoons have stifled business spirits and caused billions of dollars in losses on investors as a result of Xi ‘s , crackdown on tech companies, and the unsettling “disappearances” of Xi’s.
More important, it has eroded investor confidence in the Foreign market, leading to a substantial flow of money from China as foreign companies , and Chinese investors finding it increasingly difficult to make money in Xi’s China.
Xi’s involvement in China’s house market , has also had a tremendous influence, resulting in the decline of Evergrande, China’s largest house company. This has resulted in a rapid decline in housing prices and desire, leaving hundreds and thousands of jobs unfinished. Given that the cover component of the majority of Chinese people’s home money is important, this crisis has drastically damaged consumer confidence and increased the risk of recession in China.
Youth Employment and Epidemiology
Xi’s “zero Covid” scheme, which was immediately ended after anti-government protests erupted in late 2022, has inflicted major destruction on China’s market and, more important, on the well-being of its citizens. For three years, it subjected businesses and millions of people to harsh lockdowns. In June 2023, China was forced to stop publishing the data out of fear of causing public outcry because the youth unemployment rate rose to 22 percent.
Furthermore, the nation’s long-anticipated demographic crisis has arrived sooner than expected, as Beijing , revealed the Chinese population declined for the first time in decades. Due to all of these factors, China’s economic growth rate was only 3 % in 2022, which is its lowest level since 1976.
According to The Wall Street Journal,” China’s gross domestic product, which was 75 % the size of the U. S.’s in 2021, had slipped to 64 % in the third quarter, 2023, roughly where it was in 2017″. This indicates China’s economy is no longer on track to surpass the U. S. economy, as many had predicted.
Biden’s Failed Policy
Clearly, China’s economic woes are self-inflicted and not caused by the Biden administration’s China policies. In fact, the Biden administration’s China policy, which often lacks clarity and is full of contradictions, has largely failed.
The Biden administration extended some of the Trump administration’s policies, such as , adding Chinese companies to an economic blacklist over alleged human rights violations. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urged American businesses to keep investing in China during her visit to China last year.
The Biden administration retaliates for stifling exports of semiconductor chips to China. However, the chip export restriction has not been strictly enforced, and China still has access to Nvidia’s advanced AI chips, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Biden ‘s , green initiatives have been an economic gift for China and only deepened the U. S. economy’s dependency on the Communist regime since China dominates the global supply chain for solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries for electric vehicles due to its willingness to exploit , slave laborers ( most are ethnic minorities ) and the nation ‘s , abundant supply of coal.
On the issue of Taiwan, President Biden publicly asserted three times that , the U. S. military would defend Taiwan if China invaded the island. However, each time, senior White House staff contradicted the president’s remarks, leading to confusion and uncertainty. After Biden declared that he was open to , détente , with Beijing, China’s People’s Liberation Army ( PLA ) responded with aggressive maneuvers in the South China Sea and inflammatory rhetoric , that belittled the United States and its allies, while often refusing to even pick up phone calls from their U. S. counterparts.
China’s military might continue to grow, but its economy is still struggling. For instance, the , 2023 China Military Power Report produced by the Department of Defense estimates that the Chinese had more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023, and the PLA continues to “quite rapidly” modernize, diversify, and expand its nuclear, space, and cyberspace.
Under Biden’s first term, China has also increased its geopolitical aggressions. Despite the U. S. and its allies ‘ repeated pleas, Xi’s ongoing economic and military support of Russia has helped sustain Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In this year alone, China had , sent 233 Chinese military aircraft, 110 naval vessels, and dozens of spy balloons around Taiwan by the end of January.
In an effort to stop the Philippine resupply and patrol missions to the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea in May, the Chinese coast guard used water cannons, military-grade lasers, and other agressive tactics to damage Philippine ships and seriously hurt crews.
Probably emboldened by Biden’s mental and physical decline, Xi seems to feel comfortable bringing a new Cold War to America’s doorstep. A Chinese spy balloon floated across most of the continental United States for days in February before the Biden administration finally deflected its weight.  ,
Recently,  , a D. C. based think tank reported that China has likely upgraded and expanded its spying facilities in Cuba. Russian and Chinese warplanes were reportedly intercepted by American and Canadian fighters near the coast of Alaska this week, on the same day President Biden delivered his Oval Office address. This was the first time” strategic bombers from the two U.S. adversaries have operated together near North America,” according to U.S. officials.
All of these instances cast doubt on President Biden’s claim that his China policy was successful. Since Vice President Kamala Harris has claimed to have worked closely with Biden over the past three and a half years and is the Democratic Party’s presumed presidential nominee, her record on foreign policy, particularly in relation to China, deserves thorough investigation in the run-up to the election.
