President Biden looks to work with China, sees “extreme competition” with it

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President Joe Biden talking to Norah O'Donnell of CBS News. (Photo courtesy: CBS)

(TibetanReview.net, Feb08’21) – US President Joe Biden has said in a CBS interview Feb 7 that he will continue to be tough on China, but not in the way of his predecessor Donald Trump. He signaled that he was looking to reset US-China policy from the Trump administration, saying the two nations could avoid a conflict, even as he maintained that Chinese President Xi Jinping lacked a democratic “bone in his body”, noted dailymail.co.uk Feb 7.

He has said “we need not have a conflict”, but also noted “there’s going to be extreme competition” between the two sides.

His comments are seen as part of an effort to make US-China relations more predictable and hopefully cooperative, after years of clashing over trade as well as the coronavirus during the Trump administration.

Biden’s remarks came after Secretary of State Antony Blinken phoned China’s Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi Feb 5 and raised a number of issues that are flashpoints, to get an earful in return.

Blinken had “stressed the United States will continue to stand up for human rights and democratic values, including in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and pressed China to join the international community in condemning the military coup in Burma.”

He also reaffirmed that the US would “work together with its allies and partners in defense of our shared values and interests to hold the PRC accountable for its efforts to threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait, and its undermining of the rules-based international system.”

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