New Delhi: United States President Joe Biden On Wednesday addressed China in his State of the Union Address saying that the US seeks competition with Beijing and not conflict. In his address, Biden said that there was discussion as to how China was increasing its power and America was falling behind before he came into power but “not anymore”.
“Before I came to office, the story was about how China was increasing its power and America was falling in the world. Not anymore. I’ve made clear with Chinese President Xi that we seek competition, not conflict,” he said.
Taking on Beijing with which the US has strained ties over Covid-19, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Biden said that his country was in “strongest position in decades” to compete with China.
“We are investing to make America strong and investing in our alliances and working with our allies to protect our advanced technologies so they’re not used against us. We’re in the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world,” he added.
“If China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. Let’s be clear, winning the competition with China should unite all of us. We face serious challenges across the world. In the past two years, democracies have become stronger, not weaker,” Biden said in his address.
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Speaking on the issue of gun violence in his country, Biden said that more sources were needed to reduce violent crime & gun crime, and community intervention programs.
“All this can help prevent violence in the first place...Ban assault weapons once and for all. We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994. In the 10 years the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After Republicans let it expire, mass shootings tripled. Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again,” he said.