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US President Joe Biden answers questions from reporters at a press conference marking his first year in office on Wednesday. (UPI/Yonhap News)

“Well, good afternoon, everyone. Tomorrow will mark one year since I took office. It’s been a year of challenges, but it’s also been a year of enormous progress.”

Amid tense confrontations with China and Russia and divisions in his own party’s ranks over the “Build Back Better” legislation, US President Joe Biden took part in an extensive press conference Thursday marking the first anniversary of his inauguration.

While he began the conference with his usual smile, his expression took on a resolute cast as he worked to play up his achievements over the past year.

In opening remarks to the nearly two-hour press availability, he stressed, “We went from 2 million people being vaccinated at the moment I was sworn in, to 210 million Americans being fully vaccinated today. We created 6 million new jobs — more jobs in one year than at any time before. Unemployment dropped — the unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 percent.”

After a few exchanges about inflation and other matters related to US affairs, journalists began focusing their questions on the crisis in Ukraine and the heightened risk of war there.

Biden predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not want full-scale war in Ukraine, but added, “My guess is he will move in. He has to do something.”

In other words, he expected that while Putin would not start a full-scale war that would plunge Europe into turmoil, he might attempt various offensives to build up Moscow’s position and create problems for Europe.

Biden went on to warn that if Russia invades Ukraine, they’re “going to pay,” specifically saying, “their banks will not be able to deal in dollars.”

In various other areas, he emphasized the possibility of compromise. Noting Putin’s two demands to him — namely that Ukraine should not be allowed to join NATO and that nuclear weapons could not be deployed there — he said the two sides might be able to “work out something” on the latter.

From there, the topic shifted to China. Commenting on what has emerged as a key issue between the US and China — namely implementation of their Phase One trade deal — Biden said he did not plan to roll back the retaliatory tariffs of up to 25% imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump’s administration.

“I’d like to be able to be in a position where I can say [China is] meeting the [Phase One] commitments, or more of their commitments, and be able to lift some of it. But we’re not there yet,” he said.

In the Phase One deal concluded on Jan. 15, 2020, the US and China reached an agreement in which China said it would purchase an additional US$200 billion in US-made items over the next two years. But with the COVID-19 pandemic erupting soon afterward, that agreement has not yet been fully honored.

According to the latest analysis figures from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which has been monitoring the implementation of the deal, China had recorded US$221.9 billion in total imports from the US between the deal’s conclusion and late November 2021. That amounts to roughly 62% of the US$356.4 billion import target that Beijing agreed on.

Chinese state-run news outlets were scathing about the past year, which they described as “disappointing.”

The state-run Global Times took particular aim at Biden’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, his “fail[ure] to heal or reunite a divided US society,” and “major problems” in the US’ relations with China that “remain unsolved.”

“The hasty pullout of US soldiers from Afghanistan is the symbol of Biden's failing diplomacy,” the paper noted, adding that the country’s strengthening of AUKUS and other military alliances to contain China and Russia “caused great concern of an arms race and nuclear proliferation in the region.”

Meanwhile, support among the US public was at an all-time low. FiveThirtyEight, a polling aggregation and analysis site, calculated Biden’s approval rating at 41.9% as of Wednesday, the lowest yet for any US President besides Trump (39%).

In survey findings shared by CBS News on Jan. 16, 50% of respondents reported feeling “frustrated” since Biden took office.

This has left Biden beset with crisis both at home and abroad.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent; Jung In-hwan, Beijing correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]