US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania.
Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh.
“They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said.
Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was confirmed to be using anti-competitive practices.
“They’re xenophobic,” he added. “They’ve got real problems. I’m not looking for a fight with China, I’m looking for competition — but fair competition.”
Washington said it was also launching a probe into Chinese shipbuilding following a complaint by unions.
However, Biden said that there would be “no trade war” with China and added that tariffs would not hurt his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Biden was on the second day of a three-day swing through Pennsylvania, which he narrowly won over former US president Donald Trump in 2020 and has paid more campaign visits to than any other US state this year.
Beijing said it firmly opposes the shipbuilding probe, calling it “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.”
In Beijing yesterday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Biden of hypocrisy over his “xenophobic” and “cheating” comments.
“I would like to ask him: Are you talking about China or the US itself?” ministry spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) said.
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