Xi Jinping Has 'Enormous Problems,' Says Biden, Including 'An Economy That Is Not Functioning Very Well'

A day after saying the U.S. is seeking competition with China, not conflict, President Joe Biden said his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, has "enormous problems."

What Happened: In an interview with PBS NewsHour, after delivering his State of the Union address to the joint chambers of the U.S. Congress, Biden said Beijing was constrained in its ability to confront Washington by the need to protect international trade and that Xi himself is in an unenviable position.

“Can you think of any other world leader who’d trade places with Xi Jinping? I can’t think of one,” Biden said.

“This man has enormous problems,” he said, adding that “so far, he has an economy that is not functioning very well.”

The U.S. president also said that Xi has “great potential.” However, Biden said that the Chinese president knows about his limited ability to maneuver in confrontation with Western nations. 

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

“I called him this summer to say, ‘This is not a threat, just an observation — look what’s happened to Russia,'” Biden recalled.

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

"It is not the practice of a responsible country to smear a country or restrict the country's legitimate development rights under the excuse of competition, even at the expense of disrupting the global industrial and supply chain," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.