President Xi Jingping.
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WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden has said his government is ready for ‘extreme competition’ with China, but that his approach will be different from his predecessor.
“I’m not going to do it like Trump did. We’re going to focus on the international road rules,” Biden said in a CBS interview clip released Sunday.
“We do not have to have a conflict, but there is going to be extreme competition,” he added.
In his interview with CBS, Biden said that he has not spoken to Chinese Xi Jinping since he went up to the country’s highest office last month.
“I know him pretty well,” Biden said, explaining that he had spent more time with Xi as vice president than any world leader has. “He’s very clear and very tough and – I do not mean that as criticism, but just a reality – he does not have a democratic … leg in his body.”
Tensions between Beijing and Washington, the two largest economies in the world, have risen under the Trump administration. Over the past four years, Trump has placed the blame squarely on China for a wide range of grievances, including theft of intellectual property, unfair trade practices and, more recently, the 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 following their meeting outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Artyom Ivanov | TASS | Getty Images
Last week, Biden said it would work more closely with allies to bring back pressure on China.
“We will confront China’s economic abuse,” Biden explained, describing Beijing as America’s “most serious competitor.”
“But we are also ready to work with Beijing if it is in America’s interest to do so. We will compete from a strong position by building better at home and working with our allies and partners,” he said. the president told the state. Department.
Although Biden has not yet spoken to Xi, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken spoke to his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, for the first time over the weekend.
In a tense call, Blinken told Yang that the US would hold China accountable for its actions, especially as far as Taiwan was concerned. He also demanded that Beijing condemn the recent military coup in Myanmar.
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Blinken told lawmakers that Trump “rightly takes a tougher approach to China.”
“I do not very much agree with the way he has approached a number of areas, but the basic principle was the right principle, and I think it is actually useful for our foreign policy,” Blinken said a day before. Biden’s inauguration said.