WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said the US would cooperate with China where it can but protect its sovereignty “as we made clear last week”.

“I am committed to work with China where it can advance American interests and benefit the world. But make no mistake: As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did,” Mr Biden said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

It was an indirect reference to the uproar over the alleged Chinese spy balloon that transited US territory before it was shot down.

With tension between Washington and Beijing running high over the issue, Mr Biden took a toned-down approach in his speech, saying in his prepared text that the US was in the “strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world”.

Mr Biden did not directly mention the balloon or the US argument that it was a spy balloon.

The dispute did, however, provoke a diplomatic feud and forced Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned visit to Beijing.

A US fighter jet shot the balloon down on Saturday over the ocean off South Carolina.

The speech was in keeping with Mr Biden’s broader approach.

He told reporters on Monday that the balloon incident did not weaken US-China relations and shrugged off the notion of Chinese spying, saying it was “something that’s anticipated from China”.

While Mr Biden did not otherwise dwell on China in the speech, he said that the US had “lost our edge” in producing semiconductors and cited how automakers were not able to get chips produced overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We can never let that happen again,” he said.

Mr Biden did say, however, that autocracies had grown weaker around the world and no one would want the Chinese leader’s job.

“Name me a world leader who’d change places with Xi Jinping,” Mr Biden shouted, departing from his prepared text. “Name me one, name me one.”

It was the most fiery reference to China in the speech.

Republicans, who took control of the House of Representatives in January, have pushed a hard line in dealings with Beijing, but it is one of the few truly bipartisan sentiments in the deeply divided US Congress.

This was Mr Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress.

During his speech, he also touted America’s “unbroken” democracy and resurgent economy.

He is seeking to persuade sceptical voters that at 80, he still has what it takes to run for re-election.

It was a chance for the Democrat, who is expected soon to announce a bid for a second term, to pitch his centrist, populist vision of a country healing after Covid-19 and the turmoil of Mr Donald Trump’s presidency.

Referring to Mr Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Mr Biden said the US had survived “its greatest threat since the Civil War”.

“Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken,” Mr Biden said.

He touted surging employment figures and told Americans that his economic plan aims to rebuild the country’s manufacturing base despite pressure from the Ukraine war and pandemic disruptions.

“We’re better positioned than any country on earth right now,” he said.

For decades, “manufacturing jobs moved overseas, factories closed down”, Mr Biden said.

“Jobs are coming back. Pride is coming back,” he said. “This is my view of a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.”

Among Mr Biden’s proposals in the speech was a new “billionaire tax”. He said it was designed to “reward work, not just wealth”. And he hit out at big oil companies he accused of making “outrageous” profits.

“I ran for president to fundamentally change things to make sure our economy works for everyone, so we can all feel that pride,” Mr Biden said.

Amid deep political divisions, Mr Biden urged Republicans now holding the majority in the House of Representatives to show unity – as he accused some among them of taking the US economy “hostage” over the debt ceiling.

A major crisis is brewing in Congress over Republican refusal to extend the debt limit, usually a rubber-stamp procedure.

Mr Biden’s government warns of financial calamity, with major international implications, if Republicans stick to their guns, potentially pushing the US into default.

“Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere. And that’s always been my vision for the country: To restore the soul of the nation,” Mr Biden said.

Mr Biden also had good news to tout on Tuesday.

Inflation, which just a few months ago seemed a near-existential threat to his presidency, is steadily ticking downwards. On Friday, new figures showed joblessness hitting a half-century low.

Even if Mr Biden has yet to formally announce his 2024 candidacy, the speech – followed by two campaign-like trips on Wednesday and Thursday to Wisconsin and Florida – is expected to give him a big push.

But last week’s Chinese balloon drama – a US warplane shot down what officials said was a high-tech espionage device on Saturday – shows how narratives in Washington easily take dangerous new turns.

And when Mr Biden spoke, half of the Congress members in the chamber, as well as Speaker Kevin McCarthy sitting directly behind him, were Republicans vowing to use their new, narrow House of Representatives majority to block his policies.

Those kinds of uncertainties, as well as doubts over Mr Biden’s ability to serve a second term that would end after his 86th birthday, may be partly to blame for pessimism in a slew of new polls.

An ABC News-Washington Post Poll found that 58 per cent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said the party should find someone else for 2024. AFP, BLOOMBERG, REUTERS