Photo: Alamy
President Trump took to his Truth Social page to pose a question: “Why is the Biden Administration so SOFT on China?”
According to Trump, “China Owns Biden, and now, the USA!”
While running for president in 2019, Joe Biden downplayed the economic threat posed by China when he said, “China’s going to eat our lunch?” Biden asked rhetorically during a campaign event in Iowa. “C’mon man! They’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us.”
Unlike Joe Biden, President Trump has long taken a tough stance on American relations with the Chinese Communist Party.
In 2016, Trump campaigned on a promise to impose tariffs on China. That campaign promise is credited by many with helping Trump to carry rust belt states that were crucial to his victory over Hillary Clinton.
And Trump was a man of his word.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Trump imposed tariffs ranging from 7.5% to 25% on Chinese imports worth roughly $370 billion over four rounds between July 2018 and September 2019.”
Trump claimed that “these tariffs have brought many billions of dollars to our country, and made affected businesses, such as steel viable again in the United States.”
And according to Axios, “In 2020, the Trump administration took at least 210 public actions related to China that spanned at least 10 departments, according to publicly available data, demonstrating what the administration calls a ‘whole-of-government’ strategy.”
This is not the first time Trump has questioned Biden’s handling of China.
In 2021, he warned that America “may very well end up in a war with China” due to Joe Biden’s “weak and corrupt leadership.”
Trump cited Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan exit as proof that China views Biden as weak. He said China “witnessed firsthand our television generals’ complete surrender to the Taliban with the loss of 13 great Warriors and the handing over of $85 billion of the best and most expensive Military equipment in the World—China and Russia are already reverse-engineering the equipment so they can build it for themselves.”
He has also previously warned that the Biden family business deals—most notably involving Hunter Biden—compromise Biden’s ability to be tough on China.
