China a ‘ticking time bomb’, Biden says

US President Joe Biden called China a “ticking time bomb” as it faces an uphill task on the economic front, Reuters reported.

“They have got some problems. That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things”, Biden said while speaking at Utah Fundraiser on Thursday.

"China is in trouble”, he added.

Biden said he did not wish to hurt China and wanted a rational relationship with the Asian country.

His remarks were in reference to the comments that he made during another political fundraiser in June, where he addressed China’s President Xi Jinping as a “dictator”.

China called the remarks a provocation.

Those comments came shortly after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken completed a visit to China aimed at stabilising relations that Beijing described as being at their lowest point since formal ties were established in 1979.

China may be entering an era of much slower economic growth with stagnated consumer prices and wages, contrasting with inflation elsewhere in the world. China's consumer sector fell into deflation and factory-gate prices extended declines in July.

The United States, the world's largest economy, has fought high inflation and seen a robust labor market.

Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order that will prohibit some new US investment in China in sensitive technologies like computer chips. 

China, which has the world's second-largest economy, said it was "gravely concerned" about the order and reserved the right to take measures.