Tipsheet

Biden Now Admits China Can 'Eat Our Lunch'

Cortney O'Brien
Cortney O'Brien  |  February 11, 2021 4:00 PM

While on the campaign trail in May 2019, presidential candidate Joe Biden dismissed the idea that China was a legitimate economic competitor.

"China's going to eat our lunch?" Biden asked during a stop in Iowa. "C'mon man! They’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us.” He argued that China had too many internal issues to deal with to be considered a threat.

At the time Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) made what turned out to be a good prediction.

Well, President Biden had a lengthy call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday night, and it seemed like things have indeed changed. He now admits that China is making progress in terms of transportation. As such, he gathered together a group of lawmakers to discuss how the U.S. can really start to move on infrastructure. And he recycled the phrase he used in 2019. 

"Last night I was on the phone with for two straight hours with Xi Jinping," the president said. "It was a good conversation, I know him well, we spent a lot of time together over the years I was vice president, but if we don't get moving, they're going to eat our lunch. They have major, major new initiatives on rail, they already have rail that goes 325 miles per hour with ease. They are working very hard to do what I think we're gonna have to do."

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Journalists spotted the difference.

And yet, when White House reporters asked press secretary Jen Psaki what the administration planned to do to about the threat from the CCP, she said they weren't in any rush.

In a message about his call with President Xi, Biden insists he aggressively confronted him about China's policies. 

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley suggests that Biden could have used those two hours on Wednesday night for more productive aims, considering the U.S. is still dealing with a pandemic that originated in Wuhan.