During President Joe Biden’s address to the nation about his withdrawal from running for re-election this week, he claimed one of his foreign policy accomplishments was that China’s economy was no longer on pace to surpass the U.S. economy. The truth is the Biden administration’s China policy has been a failure and China’s economic decline has been self-inflicted.

Many people have been conditioned to think China would soon surpass the United States as the world’s dominant economic power. But that scenario seems less likely now due to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s economic policies.

Deeply suspicious of entrepreneurs and economic reform, Xi has deliberately forced China back toward the socialist economic model envisioned by Mao by placing the Chinese Communist Party and himself in the driver’s seat and managing China’s economy through central planning. Xi also prioritizes national security over economic growth and values loyalty to him over competency.