Joe Biden Elevates Xi Jinping in Address to Congress

President Joe Biden elevated Chinese President Xi Jinping in his address to Congress Wednesday, suggesting he was on his way to leading his country to overtake the United States.

“He’s deadly earnest, of becoming the most significant consequential country in the world,” Biden said during his speech, veering from his prepared text.

It was an unusual decision by Biden to refer to the Chinese president by name twice during an important address to Congress – more than any other foreign leader in his speech.

The president added that he had traveled with President Xi for 17,000 miles, a repeated claim from him that has been fact-checked as false.

Biden also said he spent over 24 hours in private discussions with President Xi during his career, including a two-hour discussion with him after the Chinese communist party leader called to congratulate him for winning the election.

Biden said President Xi was one of many “autocrats” who believed that America no longer had the ability to spend the money to be competitive.

“He and others, autocrats, think that democracy can’t compete in the 21st century with autocracies,” he said. “It takes too long to get consensus.”

Biden said he sent a strong message to the Chinese Communist Party leader after his election.

“In my discussion with President Xi, I told him that we welcome the competition – and that we are not looking for conflict,” he said.

Biden also said he would hold China accountable on trade rules and human rights issues.

“I told him what I’ve said to many world leaders – that America won’t back away from our commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms,” he said.

President Biden has pivoted significantly since he first spoke about the idea that China posed a threat to the United States when he first started running for president.

“I hear these stories about how China is going to eat our lunch. Give me a break!” he said, during a Delaware speech in March 2019 before he launched his campaign.

At a campaign speech in Iowa in May 2019, Biden again ridiculed the idea that China was a threat to the United States.

He said, China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the East. I mean in the West. They can’t figure out how they are going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what: they’re not competition for us.”