President Xi Jingping.
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WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said his administration was prepared for “extreme competition” with China, but that his approach would be different from its predecessor.
“I won’t do it the way Trump did. We’ll focus on international road rules,” Biden said in a clip of the CBS interview released Sunday.
“We don’t need any conflict, but there will be extreme competition,” he added.
In his interview with CBS, Biden said he had not yet spoken to Chinese Xi Jinping since he was promoted to the highest office in the country last month.
“I know him pretty well,” Biden said, explaining that as a vice president, he spent more time with Xi than any world leader has had. “It’s very bright and it’s very tough and, I don’t mean it as a critique, it’s just a reality. It doesn’t have a democratic bone in its body.”
Tension between Beijing and Washington, the world’s two largest economies, soared under the Trump administration. For the past four years, Trump has blamed China for a wide range of offenses, including intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices, and the recent coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 460,000 Americans. .
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at a press conference after the meeting in the Great Hall of the People of Beijing.
Artyom Ivanov | TASS | Getty Images
Last week, Biden said he would work more closely with allies in order to invest against China.
“We will face China’s economic abuses,” said Biden, who described Beijing as “America’s most serious competitor.”
“But we are also prepared to work with Beijing when it does so in the interest of the United States. We will compete from a position of strength by rebuilding better at home and working with our allies and partners,” the president told the state. Department.
Although Biden has not yet spoken to Xi, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken for the first time with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, over the weekend.
In a tense call, Blinken told Yang that the US would hold China accountable for its actions, especially with regard to Taiwan. He also called on Beijing to condemn the recent military coup in Myanmar.
During his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Blinken told lawmakers that Trump “was right to take a tougher approach toward China.”
“I don’t agree, much, with the way he did it in several areas, but the basic principle was the right one, and I think it’s actually useful for our foreign policy,” Blinken said a day earlier. of the taking of possession of Biden.