Biden says Xi has enormous problems, not conflict

President Joe Biden said that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, has enormous problems, a day after saying the U.S. is seeking competition with China, not conflict. What Happened: Biden said in an interview with PBS NewsHour that Beijing was constrained by the need to protect international trade and that Xi himself is in an unenviable position after giving his State of the Union address to the Joint Chambers of the U.S. Congress.

Biden said I can't think of one.

This man has enormous problems, he said, adding that he has an economy that is not functioning well. The U.S. president said that Xi has great potential. Biden said that the Chinese president knows his limited ability to maneuver in confrontation with Western nations.

Biden believes that Xi has taken lessons from the Western response against Vladimir Putin - including the imposition of powerful economic sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine.

This summer I called him to say this is not a threat, just an observation — look what happened to Russia, Biden said.

China said it was smeared in Biden's State of the Union address that repeatedly mentioned competition between the two countries.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that it was not the practice of a country to smear a country, or restrict the country's legitimate development rights under the excuse of competition, even at the cost of disrupting the global supply chain.