President Xi Jingping.
Getty Images
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said his government was ready for “extreme competition” with China, but his approach would be different from his predecessor’s.
“I’m not going to do it like Trump did. We’re going to focus on the international rules of the road,” Biden said in a CBS interview clip released Sunday.
“We don’t have to have conflict, but there will be extreme competition,” he added.
In his interview with CBS, Biden said he had not spoken to Xi Jinping from China since climbing up to the country’s highest office last month.
“I know him pretty well,” said Biden, explaining that as vice president he spent more time with Xi than any world leader. “He’s very smart and he’s very tough and – I don’t mean it as criticism, it’s just reality – he doesn’t have a democratic … bone in his body.”
Tension between Beijing and Washington, the world’s two largest economies, has skyrocketed under the Trump administration. Over the past four years, Trump has blamed China for a wide variety of grievances, including intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices, and most recently the coronavirus pandemic, which 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 outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Artyom Ivanov | TASS | Getty Images
Last week, Biden said he would work more closely with allies to stage a backlash against China.
“We will face China’s economic abuses,” Biden explained, describing Beijing as America’s “most serious competitor”.
“But we are also willing to work with Beijing when it is in America’s best interest to do so. We will compete from a strong position by building better at home and working with our allies and partners,” the company said. president at the state. Department.
Although Biden has not yet spoken with Xi, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi for the first time this weekend.
In a tense appeal, Blinken told Yang that the US would hold China responsible for its actions, especially regarding Taiwan. He also called on Beijing to condemn the recent military coup in Myanmar.
During his Senate hearing, Blinken told lawmakers Trump was “right about taking a tougher approach to China.”
“I strongly disagree with the way he has handled it in a number of areas, but the basic principle was the right one, and I think that’s really helpful for our foreign policy,” Blinken said a day before Biden’s inauguration.