President Xi Jingping.
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WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden has said his administration is ready for “extreme competition” with China, but that his approach will be different from that of his predecessor.
“I will not do it as Trump did. We will focus on international road rules,” Biden said in a CBS interview clip released Sunday.
“We don’t have to have a conflict, but there will be extreme competition,” he added.
In an interview with CBS, Biden said he has not spoken to Xi Jinping in China since moving to the nation’s top office 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. “He’s very bright and he’s very tough and – I don’t mean that as a critique, it’s just a reality – he doesn’t have a … bone in his democratic body.”
Tensions between Beijing and Washington, the world’s two largest economies, have risen under the Trump administration. In the past four years, Trump has blamed China for a wide range of grievances, including intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices and the recent coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 460,000 Americans.
US President Donald Trump (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at a press conference after their meeting in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Artyom Ivanov | TASS | Getty Images
Last week, Biden said he would work more closely with the Allies to turn against China.
“We will face China’s economic abuses,” Biden said, describing Beijing as “America’s most serious competitor.”
“But we are also ready to work with Beijing when it is in America’s interest to do so. We will compete from a position of strength by rebuilding better at home and working with our allies and partners,” the department’s president said. .
Although Biden has not yet spoken with Xi, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi for the first time over the weekend.
In a tense call, Blinken told Yang that the United States would answer to China for its actions, especially with regard to Taiwan. He also called on Beijing to condemn the recent military coup in Myanmar.
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Blinken told lawmakers that Trump “was right in China’s tougher approach.”
“I don’t really agree with how he did it in many areas, but the basic principle was the right one and I think it’s actually useful for our foreign policy,” Blinken said the day before. the inauguration of Biden.