President Joe Biden vowed Tuesday he would not hesitate to defend US interests against China after he ordered the downing of a suspected surveillance balloon but, delivering his State of the Union address, kept the door open to cooperation.
In the annual speech to assembled lawmakers, many of whom have pressed for a hard line on China, Biden called for US investment in the military, technology and alliances to take on the country widely viewed as the chief US competitor.
“I’m committed to work with China where it can advance American interests and benefit the world,” Biden said.
“But make no mistake about it -- as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did,” he said to applause.
Biden said that “winning the competition” with China should unite Americans.
“I will make no apologies that we are investing to make America stronger -- investing in American innovation, in industries that will define the future that China intends to be dominating.”
But Biden steered clear of hawkish language as he mentioned by name his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, whom he met at length in November in Indonesia.
Biden said he told Xi that “we seek competition, not conflict.”
China was one of the few foreign policy issues mentioned by Biden in a more than one-hour speech that comes as he prepares for a likely run for a second term.
He also promised long-term support for Ukraine but made no mention of Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, North Korea or this week’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
Pentagon says China rejected talks
A US fighter jet on Saturday shot down what the Pentagon called a Chinese surveillance balloon after it crossed into the Atlantic Ocean, with the military saying it waited until a point when the debris could not hurt people on the ground.
The episode led US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a visit to Beijing aimed at reducing tensions as he accused China of violating US sovereignty.
Blinken said that he sought to maintain communication with China. But at the Pentagon, a spokesman said that China rebuffed a request to speak.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin requested a secure call with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe immediately after the shootdown, Brigadier General Pat Ryder said.
“Unfortunately, the PRC has declined our request. Our commitment to open lines of communication will continue,” Ryder said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
China says the balloon was an errant weather observation aircraft with no military purpose. But Washington has described it as a sophisticated high-altitude spying vehicle which reportedly traversed over several top-secret military sites.
Austin and Wei met in Cambodia in November as Washington and Beijing sought to lower the temperature after a visit to Taiwan by then-speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that enraged China.
General Glen VanHerck, head of the US Northern Command, said a naval ship would map the debris field left by the balloon, which is expected to measure about 1,500 by 1,500 meters (yards) in the Atlantic.
The balloon itself was up to 200 feet (60 meters) tall and carried a payload weighing several thousand pounds that was roughly the size of a regional jet aircraft, he said.
VanHerck said the balloon debris would be carefully studied.
“I don’t know where the debris is going to go for a final analysis, but I will tell you that certainly the intel community along with the law enforcement community that works this under counterintelligence will take a good look at it,” he said.
Vows to restore blue-collar pride
President Joe Biden touted America’s “unbroken” democracy and resurgent economy in the optimistic State of the Union speech -- as he sought to persuade sceptical voters that at 80 he still has what it takes to takes to run for re-election.
The address before Congress and tens of millions of television viewers was a chance for the Democrat, who is expected soon to announce a bid for a second term, to pitch his centrist, populist vision of a country healing after Covid and the turmoil of Donald Trump’s presidency.
In a raucous prime-time speech that occasionally more resembled the British parliament’s Question Time than the staid annual US tradition, Biden eagerly took on jeering Republicans who newly control the House of Representatives.
Referring to the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election by Trump -- who is again seeking the White House -- Biden said that the United States had survived “its greatest threat since the Civil War.”
“Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken,” Biden said.
Biden touted unemployment figures which have hit a half-century low and stabilising inflation as he told Americans that his economic plan aims to rebuild the country’s manufacturing base.
“We’re better positioned than any country on Earth right now,” he said.
For decades, “manufacturing jobs moved overseas, factories closed down,” Biden said.
“Jobs are coming back. Pride is coming back,” he said. “This is my view of a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.”
Among Biden’s proposals in the speech was a new “billionaire tax” he said was designed to “reward work, not just wealth.”
And he hit out at big oil companies he accused of making “outrageous” profits.
“I ran for president to fundamentally change things to make sure our economy works for everyone, so we can all feel that pride,” Biden said.
Taking economy ‘hostage’
Amid deep political divisions, Biden warned Republicans in strong terms not to use their newfound power to block an increase in the debt limit -- a usually rubber-stamp procedure which some conservative lawmakers have refused.
“Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage, I get it, unless I agree to their economic plans,” Biden said.
“Let’s commit here tonight that the full faith and credit of the United States of America will never, ever be questioned.”
Biden’s administration warns of financial calamity, with major international implications, if Republicans stick to their guns, potentially pushing the United States into default.
“Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere. And that’s always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation,” Biden said.
But Biden also lobbed pointed criticism at Republicans, accusing some of seeking to wind down entitlements for seniors. Faced with Republicans shouting back, Biden deviated from script to acknowledge that a majority of the rival party did not back ending such popular programs.
‘We can’t turn away’
Guests at the speech included rock megastar and HIV/AIDS campaigner Bono and Ukraine’s ambassador, Oksana Markarova.
In an address light on foreign policy, Biden received a rousing response when he vowed to support Ukraine “as long as it takes” against Russia’s invasion.
Biden’s most eye-catching guests were Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old man who disarmed the gunman in a January mass shooting in California, and RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the parents of Tyre Nichols, a man whose death after a prolonged police beating in Memphis, Tennessee, shocked the nation.
The president urged Congress to move forward on reforms on policing as well as gun violence.
“We need to rise to this moment. We can’t turn away,” he said.
Delivering the Republican rebuttal to Biden, former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders lashed out at the “radical left” and what she said was an attack against the “freedom and peace” of patriotic Americans.
“It’s crazy and it’s wrong,” said Sanders, who has been elected governor of Arkansas since leaving Trump’s administration and is a rising star on the right.
Even if Biden has yet to formally announce his 2024 candidacy, the speech -- followed by two very campaign-like trips Wednesday and Thursday to Wisconsin and Florida -- is expected to give him a big push.
But uncertainties, as well as doubts over Biden’s ability to serve a second term that would end after his 86th birthday, may be partly to blame for pessimism in a slew of new polls. An ABC News-Washington Post Poll found that 58 per cent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said the party should find someone else for 2024.