U.S. President Joe Biden has described China as a "ticking time bomb" in many areas, citing economic challenges such as high employment and slowing growth, even as his administration seeks to defuse tensions with the Asian power, a White House transcript released Friday showed.

"China is in trouble," Biden told a political fundraising event in Utah on Thursday, according to the transcript. "That's not good," he added, "because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things."

His remarks came despite Washington holding increased high-level exchanges recently with Beijing after months of heightened tensions, with the two sides exploring a possible summit by the end of this year between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Biden earlier this week signed an executive order aimed at curbing U.S. investment in a few categories of China's high-tech sector, in yet another step by his administration to prevent Beijing from gaining access to sensitive technologies to modernize its military.

At the fundraising event, Biden also said he did not want to "hurt China," expressing hope to build a "rational" bilateral relationship with Xi.

During a similar fundraiser in June, Biden called Xi a "dictator," angering China, which called his language "political provocation."