Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden defended backing China’s entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, saying he was not “naive” about the global superpower.
During a town hall with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Biden defended supporting China’s entering the WTO which has resulted in at least 3.4 million American jobs being eliminated from the United States economy — at least 2.6 million of which were eliminated in the manufacturing sector.
Biden also defended supporting normalizing U.S. trade relations with China, saying “it’s in our interest for China to be stable” and asserting he wants “China to grow.”
The exchange went as follows:
TAPPER: Let me ask you about China. In 2011 when you were vice president you said, quote, “It is in our self-interest that China continue to prosper.”
A lot of people think that allowing China into the World Trade Organization, which you supported, extending Most Favored Nation status to China, which you supported, that those steps allowed China to take advantage of the United States by using our own open trade deals against us. Do you think, in retrospect, you were naive about China?
BIDEN: No, here is the thing.
In the context of that, we want China to grow. We don’t want a war with China.
I said to Xi Jinping, you may remember the president wanted me to spend time with him as vice president, he couldn’t do it, so I traveled around the world with him. He asked, why do you keep saying you’re a Pacific power? I said because we are. We are a Pacific power. If we weren’t, you would not be able to have any stability at all.
It’s in our interest for China to be stable. It’s not in our interest for China to take advantage of us. What has Trump done? He poked his finger in the eye of the allies and embraced every autocrat in the world, we make up 25% of the world economy and we’ve lost all our friends. The way to keep China in line is to make two things clear. Insist we play by international rules.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden’s family has helped China prosper.
Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son, helped the Chinese government acquire a Michigan-based automotive company that has gone on to expand jobs outside the U.S. in China, Mexico, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and South America.
Aside from supporting China’s entering the WTO and normalizing U.S. trade relations with China, Biden voted for NAFTA which led to millions of more American jobs being eliminated, KORUS which has eliminated at least 60,000 American jobs, and urged passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which would have at least 330,000 American jobs if it had not been killed by President Trump.
White HouseThe latest Pew Research Center survey shows Americans nearly unanimously see China as a “threat” to the U.S. About 91 percent of Americans said China’s power and influence is more of a threat to the U.S. than global warming, Russia’s power and influence, the condition of the global economy, and global poverty.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.