China responds to Biden’s Speak of the Union address, calls on U.S. to be ‘device and rational’

All right and now to China where they're reacting to the president's State of the Union Address last evening President Biden saying he is committed to work with China but referencing that balloon incident saying the U.S will act to protect the Contra Eunice Union joins us now Eunice how is all this being received in China.

Well in a much more muted way than you would expect Ty the Chinese have been downplaying a President Biden's critical remarks of the foreign Ministry today called on the U.S to be objective and irrational they say while arguing that a responsible country would see this relationship as one of opportunity now there's been some speculation that the.

Chinese may be reluctant to be seen as personally attacking President Biden because of his relationship with President XI now this more muted response comes amid the arau over the balloon which the U.S alleges is for spying of course the Chinese deny that but that President Biden has described as a threat to U.S sovereignty and that.

Description really hits a sore spot for the Chinese who have been striving to present themselves as the one that upholds International rules and is a champion for State sovereignty globally as opposed to to what the Chinese have hinted at is a U.S that interferes and imposes Western values now the Chinese have not in response to President.

Biden's speech reference the balloon but did say that they would defend firmly Chinese sovereignty guys Eunice quick question it's changing gears just a little bit it's obviously early early in the morning there in Beijing right now but now that Chinese the Lunar New Year is over what are you seeing and sensing about the Vitality the reopening the.

Economic activity in Beijing and elsewhere in China well based on my Impressions First Impressions and after just coming back recently to China there is definitely more economic activity compared to the zero covid period I have seen traffic jams which I had not seen in the past couple of months so when I before I left.

And also um there are restaurants that are open late stores that are staying open as well so people are out there shopping there is still a concern about catching covid though I'm not as bad from what I understand here in Beijing as compared to a couple of months ago when there was a massive surge so that has subsided here very difficult to say.

What's going on around the country where the pandemic is still going on and we don't have a whole lot of clear data but at the same time what's interesting I think is that there has been a lot of discussion about economic recovery but there's also a lot of discussion about the the years of lost income from zero covid so that's affected doing spending.

And I think it's being borne out in some of the numbers that we're seeing you mentioned the Lunar New Year the travel numbers looked pretty good the government said that it was about 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels but the consumption numbers haven't been as great and you can even see that in smartphone sales.

Um the the lowest in a decade and in fact not a lot of discussion about a recent discount by Apple for its iPhone Pro Series a hundred dollars off but people aren't really talking about it that much so I think that tells us something about the way the consumers are thinking here and finally Eunice as we get more reports about Chinese spy.

Balloons making their way around the world what is the narrative there about this issue well then the narrative is that it's pretty much the U.S overreacting and that the Chinese are in the right and that this is just a weather balloon all of them are just weather balloons that's what they're saying yep all right.

Have to ask Eunice thanks so much it's good to see you again we appreciate your reporting today you miss you

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