Joe Biden's "appeasing" approach to China has been slammed by a former US security adviser who warns President Xi Jinping is "exploiting" the country.
KT McFarland said the US president could have "struck a tough deal" while "the Chinese economy is in trouble" during a meeting with Jinping.
Biden and Jinping met last week and reportedly agreed to re-establish military communications, cooperate on the flow of fentanyl chemicals, and work together on reducing climate change.
Speaking to GB News, McFarland said: "President Biden's approach to China is very similar to his approach to Iran - it's appeasement.
"He thinks that if you're really nice to them and give them everything they want, whether it's economic needs or military needs or diplomatic needs, they're going to be nice back.
"And it just doesn't work, it's never worked with China, it certainly never worked with Iran, but it's really the same. It's the same policy.
"So President Biden, who has undone a lot of the tough things that President Trump had put in during the Trump administration, is now in a position where the Chinese are exploiting him all over the place.
"Whether it's militarily over Taiwan, whether it's diplomatically in international organisations, or whether it's economic, which is where the real vulnerability of the US lies."
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McFarland - Trump's former deputy national security advisor - explained that Biden could have "taken advantage" of the slowing economic growth in China.
Experts claim the country's decades-long run of growth has come to an end as its share of world GDP is set to shrink by 1.4 per cent over two years.
"Here's the vulnerability that China has, they have increasingly under Xi Jinping taken what was a thriving economy and a very significant economic growth and he's now emphasised control," McFarland said.
"He's no longer saying free market capitalism, which his predecessors have done. So as a result, economic growth is slowing in China.
McFarland - Trump's former deputy national security advisor - explained that Biden could have 'taken advantage' of the slowing economic growth in China
GB News
"China has not bounced back from Covid as the other countries of the world have. Their economic growth is not bouncing back."
She added: "President Biden could have struck a tough deal when he met with Xi Jinping last week, the Chinese economy is in trouble.
"We could have really used that to the American and to the Western advantage, but President Biden chose not to."
