WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden says China is in favor of “extreme competition” from the US under his administration, but that the new relationship it wants to establish must not be one of conflict.
In an interview aired on Sunday, Biden admitted that he had not spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping since his January 20 inauguration, but noted that the two leaders had met many times when both men had served their countries. as Vice President.
“I know him pretty well,” Biden said in an excerpt from CBS’s “Face the Nation” interview on Sunday.
When they talk, they will have “a lot to talk about,” Biden said.
Biden seems to be focusing his initial telephone diplomacy on US allies. He has so far spoken with leaders in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the NATO Secretary General.
He also worked in a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the interview, Biden described Xi as “very bright” and “very tough,” but without “a small, democratic D with a bone in his body.”
Shortly after Biden succeeded President Donald Trump in the White House, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry said that “after this very difficult and extraordinary time, both the Chinese and American people deserve a better future.” good”. Beijing welcomed the Biden administration’s decision to remain with the World Health Organization and return to the Paris climate agreement.
However, the new administration is unlikely to significantly change US policies on trade, Taiwan, human rights and the South China Sea, which have angered Xi’s increasingly assertive government.
Biden said in an interview Friday that he told Xi “all the time, we don’t have to have a conflict.” But, Biden added, there will be “extreme competition. And I won’t do it the way he knows it. And that’s because it also sends signals. ”
Biden said he would not continue US-China relations as Trump did, but would focus on “international rules of the road.”