China is not afraid of competition with US says MoFA

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China is convinced that healthy and stable relations between the US and China are in themself a Beijing interest, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning who noted, on Wednesday, that China is not afraid of competition with the US.

"China does not avoid or fear competition, but we are opposed to using the notion of competition as a definition of the entire Sino-US relationship," Mao told the press.

The spokesperson further explained that a healthy and stable relationship between the two countries "is in the fundamental interests of the peoples of the two countries," adding that this is also the international community's common expectation. 

According to Mao, Sino-US relations are built on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and mutually beneficial cooperation. 

"The success of China and the United States is an opportunity, not a challenge for each other. There is enough space on the planet Earth to fully accommodate the development of the two countries and the joint prosperity of China and the United States," Mao said.

Biden vows to protect US sovereignty if China 'threatens it'

Earlier today, US President Joe Biden warned in his State of the Union address that if China threatened the nation, his administration would respond accordingly. 

“Make no mistake: as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country," Biden vowed to the US public.

“Don’t bet against America,” he underscored, which prompted a chorus of "USA" chants. "It has never been a good bet to bet against America."

The US president stated that "winning the competition with China" should unite Americans and that the US is in the best position to compete with Beijing or "anyone else in the world."

In light of the downed Chinese balloon, Biden's comments come as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that the US has no intention of returning the Chinese balloon to Beijing. 

The US is intent on not only keeping the debris of the Chinese balloon but to "exploit what we recover and learn even more than we have learned", Sullivan said on Monday. 

For the past week, a Chinese balloon, shot down over the weekend, dazzled US politics and intelligence officials who alleged that the balloon is used for surveillance. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed that it was only a civilian balloon used for meteorological research. 

Biden received a  wave of backlash as US officials criticized the commander-in-chief over beliefs that he failed to act decisively enough. The president later explained that he chose to hold off on shooting down the balloon until it was over airspace that would not "cause injuries to the wider public."

Read more: Chinese balloon, among many more, part of aerial spy program: US intel