Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) called former Vice President Joe Biden’s opinion on the economic threat posed by China “stunningly out of touch” during an appearance Saturday night on CNN’s “The Van Jones Show.”
“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man,” Biden said during a campaign stop in Iowa last week. “I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they’re not, they’re not competition for us.”
“No one can compete with us. Nobody can compete with us around the world,” he added. President Donald Trump called the comments “dumb” and “naive,” and Ryan, a Democratic 2020 contender, seems to agree.
“You know, I actually think that’s stunning. And I love Joe Biden, but I think that’s stunningly out of touch with where we are right now,” Ryan said in response to Biden’s comments.
Joe Biden’s comments that China’s economy is “not competition” for the United States is “stunningly out of touch,” 2020 candidate @RepTimRyan tells @VanJones68.
Watch the full interview tonight on “The Van Jones Show” at 7 p.m. ET on CNN. https://t.co/FsRpn5BaZs pic.twitter.com/u5oYZEIfGT
— CNN (@CNN) May 4, 2019
“I mean, if you look at what China’s doing, they’ve got a five year plan, 10 year plan, 20 year plan, 50 year plan, 100 year plan. They’re building islands in the South China Sea. They’ve militarized them. Long term raw material contracts in Africa. They’re building bases in Africa. They have a belt road initiative where they’re building infrastructure projects. I saw a picture the other day—a rail line from northeast China all the way to Rotterdam. They are on the move. They are dominating electric vehicles, they are dominating solar. They’re putting billions of dollars behind these projects. They have a 100 year plan, Van,” Ryan elaborated.
Ryan has repeatedly claimed, as he did Saturday night on CNN, that the “future is in electric vehicles, solar, wind, artificial intelligence, [and] additive manufacturing.”
“These are the industries that are growing at 25 to 30 percent a year,” he continued, saying Trump “has no industrial policy for us.”
“And, quite frankly, we’re getting our clock cleaned by China,” Ryan said. “China dominates 40 percent of the electric vehicle market. They dominate 60 percent of the solar panel market. We’ve got to get our act together here.”
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
