THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 8, 2021 at 12:30 JST
In this Dec. 4, 2013, file photo, Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden as they pose for photos at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (AP Photo)
WASHINGTON--President Joe Biden says China is in for “extreme competition” from the U.S. under his administration, but that the new relationship he wants to forge need not be one of conflict.
In an interview broadcast Sunday, Biden acknowledged that he has yet to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping since his inauguration Jan. 20 but noted that the two leaders had met many times when both men served their countries as vice president.
“I know him pretty well,” Biden said in an excerpt of the interview aired Sunday by CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
When they do speak, they will have “a whole lot to talk about,” Biden said.
Biden appears to be concentrating his initial telephone diplomacy on U.S. allies. He so far has spoken with the leaders of 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 democratic, small D, bone in his body.”
Shortly after Biden succeeded President Donald Trump in the White House, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said that “after this very difficult and extraordinary time, both the Chinese and American people deserve a better future.” Beijing welcomed the Biden administration’s decision to remain in the World Health Organization and return to the Paris climate agreement.
The new administration, however, is unlikely to significantly alter U.S. policies on trade, Taiwan, human rights and the South China Sea that have angered Xi’s increasingly assertive government.
Biden, in the interview taped Friday, said he has said to Xi “all along, that we need not have a conflict.” But, Biden added, there will be “extreme competition. And I’m not going to do it the way that he knows. And that’s because he’s sending signals as well.”
Biden said he will not pursue U.S.-China relations in the way that Trump did but will focus on “international rules of the road.”
China senior diplomat says U.S. relations at ‘new crossroads’
January 2, 2021
INTERVIEW/ Obama official: Nuke powers erred in ignoring ban treaty talks
February 1, 2021China unlikely to find Biden a soft touch
November 9, 2020
Biden wins over residents of tsunami-hit town since 2011 visit
November 11, 2020
‘America is back’--Biden touts muscular foreign policy in first diplomatic speech
February 6, 2021
EDITORIAL: Biden has a duty to correct the wayward course of a superpower
November 10, 2020
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
