Former vice president Joe Biden once again downplayed the economic threat posed by China during an event in Berlin, N.H. on Tuesday.
"We're in a position where we have the most agile venture capitalists in the world. It's not like they're the bad guys," he said. "We're the best at doing it. Our workers are literally three times as productive as workers in the Far East, in Asia. They're three times as productive. And so what are we worried about?"
Biden was similarly dismissive of China last month during an event in Iowa.
"China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man," Biden said. "They're not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They're not competition for us."
A paper published by the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy last June highlighted the threat China poses America and the global economy:
The People’s Republic of China (China) has experienced rapid economic growth to become the world’s second largest economy while modernizing its industrial base and moving up the global value chain. However, much of this growth has been achieved in significant part through aggressive acts, policies, and practices that fall outside of global norms and rules (collectively, "economic aggression"). Given the size of China’s economy and the extent of its market-distorting policies, China’s economic aggression now threatens not only the U.S. economy but also the global economy as a whole.
The paper concludes "China’s acts, policies, and practices of economic aggression now targeting the technologies and IP of the world threaten not only the U.S. economy but also the global innovation system as a whole."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Biden's comments last month "a little disconnected from the reality that is China today."
"Maybe when he ran for president the first time this was the situation, but it certainly not today. China poses an enormous challenge to the United States of America," Pompeo said.