US accused of hypocrisy after Biden says China ‘xenophobic’

BEIJING: Beijing accused the United States of hypocrisy yesterday in response to accusations by President Joe Biden that China is “xenophobic” and “cheating” on trade.

“I would like to ask him: are you talking about China or the US itself ?” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

In a speech Wednesday to union members, Biden called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing it of cheating as he courted bluecollar voters on an election campaign trip to the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

“They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said to cheers at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers union in Pittsburgh.

The Democrat said Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidising them so heavily”.

He said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminium if Beijing was confirmed to be using anti-competitive practices.

“They’re xenophobic. They’ve got real problems. I’m not looking for a fight with China, I’m looking for competition. But fair competition.”

Beijing and Washington have clashed in recent years on flashpoint issues from technology and trade to human rights as well as over the self-ruled island of Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea.

This week, the US announced a probe into China’s trade practices in the shipbuilding, maritime and logistics sectors.

China’s Commerce Ministry hit back, saying the probe was “full of false accusations, misinterpreting normal trade and investment activities as harming US national security and corporate interests, and blaming China for its own industrial problems”.