<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Beijing on Thursday accused the United States of hypocrisy in response to accusations by President Joe Biden that China is “xenophobic” and “cheating” on trade.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">“I would like to ask him: are you talking about China or the US itself?” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said when asked about the comments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a speech on Wednesday to union members, Biden called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing it of cheating as he courted blue-collar voters on an election campaign trip to the battleground state of Pennsylvania.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” the 81-year-old Biden said to cheers at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers union in Pittsburgh, reports AFP&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Democrat said Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidising them so heavily”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Biden also said that he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminium if Beijing was confirmed to be using anti-competitive practices.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/fas</div>