China has strongly criticized US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, claiming he falsely accused the country of “economic abuses” and “stealing technology and intellectual property.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry also stated that the accusations were unwarranted and were “slandering” China. The ministry also called for the US to stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.
BEIJING (AP) — China says it was smeared in U.S. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, which repeatedly mentioned competition between the two countries.
China is not afraid to compete with the US but is “opposed to defining the entire China-US relationship in terms of competition,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a daily briefing on Wednesday.
“It is not the practice of a responsible country to slander a country or restrict the country’s legitimate development rights under the pretense of competition, even at the cost of disrupting the global industrial and supply chain,” Mao said.
China will defend its interests and the US should work with it to “promote the return of bilateral ties to solid and stable development,” she said.
Mao’s comments came amid raging disputes over trade, Taiwan, human rights and access to advanced technologies.
Biden mentioned China and its leader Xi Jinping at least seven times in his Tuesday night address, mostly focusing on how the US was increasingly willing to compete with Beijing while avoiding conflict.
“I made it clear to President Xi that we seek competition, not conflict,” Biden said.
“I will not apologize for investing to make America strong. Investing in American innovations, in industries that will define the future and that the Chinese government intends to dominate,” he said.
Biden said his administration is “committed to working with China where it can advance American interests and benefit the world.”
However, he also warned that “if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country,” a clear reference to Saturday’s downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was transiting the continental United States.
China says the balloon was an unmanned civilian airship used for meteorological research and has fiercely protested the US action while threatening unspecified countermeasures.
The incident prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a trip to China this week that had sparked hopes of reversing the ongoing deterioration in relations between Beijing and Washington.
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