Former Vice President Joe Biden said last year that he told former President Barack Obama during his administration that “China is not our problem,” a position likely to draw additional scrutiny as the coronavirus pandemic escalates.
“I’ve met virtually every major world leader in the last 40 years — not hyperbole, fact,” the likely Democratic presidential nominee said in October. “We talked about China. I said China is not our problem. China is not our problem if we invest and remember who we are. Imagine the situation — I’ve spent more time with Xi Jinping than any world leader had before I left the vice presidency.”
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The former vice president’s record on China is expected to play a big role in the 2020 presidential election. President Donald Trump has criticized China for it’s role in the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The virus has now led to thousands of deaths throughout the world and shut down significant portions of the global economy. (RELATED: ‘Xenophobia’: Joe Biden Criticizes Trump Calling Coronavirus A ‘Foreign Virus’)
Meanwhile, Biden has consistently dismissed the notion that China poses a threat to the U.S., telling a concerned voter last year that the communist nation is “not competition for us,” and adding that “they’re not bad folks.”
Biden’s family ties to China have also come into question throughout the election cycle after a Daily Caller News Foundation review conducted last year found that Biden’s son Hunter received over $700,000 from Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a New York-based capital management company with close financial ties to one of China’s national banks.