WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden says that China faces “extreme competition” from the United States under his administration, but that the new relationship he wants to establish need not be a conflict.
In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Biden acknowledged that he has not yet spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping since his inauguration on January 20, but noted that the two leaders met many times when they both served their countries as vice presidents.
“I know him very well,” said Biden in an excerpt from the interview broadcast on Sunday by CBS’s “Face the Nation” program.
When they speak, they will have “a lot to talk about,” said Biden.
Biden appears to be focusing his initial telephone diplomacy on US allies. So far, he has spoken with leaders in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Australia and NATO’s secretary general.
He also worked on a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the interview, Biden described Xi as “very intelligent” and “very resistant”, but without “a small, democratic bone in his body”.
Shortly after Biden succeeded President Donald Trump in the White House, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that “after such a difficult and extraordinary period, both the Chinese and the American people deserve a better future.” Beijing welcomed the Biden government’s decision to remain with the World Health Organization and return to the Paris climate agreement.
However, the new government is unlikely to significantly change US policies on trade, Taiwan, human rights and the South China Sea, which has angered Xi’s increasingly aggressive government.
Biden, in the interview recorded on Friday, said he told Xi “all the time, that we don’t need to have a conflict”. But, added Biden, there will be “extreme competition. And I’m not going to do it the way he knows it. And that is because it is sending signals as well. “
Biden said he will not pursue US-China relations in the way that Trump did, but will focus on “international traffic rules”.