Biden denies US-China ties more strained after balloon spat in TV interview

WASHINGTON - US President Joe Biden has denied that relations with Beijing have suffered a serious blow after the United States downed an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew across the country.

Mr Biden said the US is currently recovering “major pieces” of the aircraft to analyse the equipment. But he maintained that the incident has not further exacerbated tensions with China. 

“No. No,” Mr Biden told Ms Judy Woodruff in an interview for PBS NewsHour on Wednesday, when asked if ties between the world’s two largest economies had taken a “big hit”.

“Look, the idea shooting down a balloon that’s gathering information over America, and that makes relations worse? Look, I made it real clear to (President) Xi Jinping that we’re going to compete fully with China but we’re not going looking for conflict. And that’s been the case so far,” Mr Biden responded.

The President clarified that he has not spoken to his Chinese counterpart since the incident. 

“I talked to Xi Jinping before. And our team talks to their people,” said Mr Biden.

In regard to the balloon, Mr Biden said the US is “recovering major pieces of it to determine if we can learn anything from what they garnered and what kind of equipment they had”.

He then took a swipe at his predecessor, rival and potential opponent in the 2024 presidential election, Mr Donald Trump, saying “there were several of these balloons that during the last administration they didn’t even know they were there. They did nothing about them”.

Mr Biden in his State of the Union address on Tuesday did not mention the espionage episode specifically, but referred to the events of last week as a threat to US sovereignty. He also called out Mr Xi in the address, saying the Chinese leader’s position in the world is weaker and the US as well as other democracies have grown stronger over the past two years.

“Name me a world leader who’d change places with Xi Jinping,” Mr Biden shouted, departing from his prepared text on Tuesday night as he waved a finger. “Name me one, name me one.”

The remarks were the most fiery reference to China in the speech, days after the US shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina following the airship’s flight across the country. 

Mr Biden has come under criticism from Republicans, who said the delay in downing the aircraft showed weakness and put Americans at risk.

The President insisted there are areas where the US and China can work together and that he had sought out those opportunities while defending America’s interests.

During the interview, Mr Biden also said he did not believe the US economy will fall into recession this year or the next, his most confident prediction on the fate of an economy that is still rattled by fears of a downturn.

Asked whether he thought there would be a recession this year, Mr Biden responded: “No, or next year. From the moment I got elected, how many of the experts are saying within the next six months, there’s gonna be recession?“

Mr Biden himself has said a recession was possible, and earlier this week he told reporters that the risk was very low. On the whole, economic data in recent months has moved in the President’s favour, particularly after inflation spiked to a 40-year high last summer and government reports showed the US economy could be heading into a recession. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS