With tensions between Washington and Beijing running high over the issue, Biden hardly referenced the balloon incident in his State of the Union speech. He said the US was in the “strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world”.
In the one significant departure from his prepared speech while discussing China, Biden shouted: “Name me a world leader who’d change places with Xi Jinping. Name me one.” Biden had met Xi in Bali last November with a pledge to try to reverse a slide in the relationship and resume military contacts that were suspended after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. But the Pentagon said on Tuesday that China had rebuffed efforts to set up a call between the two countries’ top defence officials after the balloon was shot down.
“Putin’s invasion has been a test for the ages, a test for America, a test for the world,” Biden said Tuesday night in his State of the Union address to Congress. “Such a defence matters to us because it keeps the peace and prevents open season” for “would-be aggressors to threaten our security and prosperity”.
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