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WASHINGTON (AP) – US President Joe Biden said Thursday (March 25) that he would prevent China from moving over to the United States to become the most powerful country in the world, and vowed to invest heavily to ensure that the United States prevails. in the rivalry between the two largest economies in the world.
Biden said he had spent “hours and hours” with Xi Jinping when he served as vice president to former President Barack Obama, and was convinced that the Chinese president believed that autocracy, not democracy, was the key to the future.
The Democratic president said he had made it clear to Xi that the United States was not seeking a confrontation, but would insist that China abide by international rules of fair competition, fair trade and respect for human rights.
“China has an overarching goal … to become the leading country in the world, the richest country in the world and the most powerful country in the world,” he told reporters at the White House. “That is not going to happen under my supervision because the United States will continue to grow.”
Biden targeted Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin for embracing autocracy.
“He’s one of a kind, like Putin, who thinks that autocracy is the wave of the future, (and) democracy can’t work in an always complex world,” the president said at his first press conference since taking office. in january.
In early March, Biden told ABC News that he believed Putin was “a murderer,” sparking a furor in Moscow.
“He (Xi) doesn’t have a democratic bone, with a little ‘d’, in his body, but he’s a smart guy,” she said.
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Biden’s comments echoed events during his presidential campaign, coming days after the first high-level in-person conversations between US and Chinese officials under his administration in Alaska, where combative public statements exposed the depth of tensions between rivals.
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said that China’s goal is “to satisfy the growing aspiration of the Chinese people for a better life.” “Our goal is not to compete with or replace any other country. This is never our national strategy.”
He said dividing the world is not a solution that will help get rid of the coronavirus, address climate change or eradicate poverty.
“We do not believe that any attempt to divide the world into different camps or even build confrontational military blocs, we do not believe that this type of approach is a solution.”
Commentary: After Alaska, the Era of Selective Engagement in US-China Relations Begins
Biden said he would work with U.S. allies to hold China accountable for its actions in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the South China Sea, and its treatment of the Uighur minority, in addition to pressuring Beijing to adhere to international rules of fair Trade.
He said he told Xi during a two-hour conversation after taking office: “As long as you and your country continue to so blatantly violate human rights, we will continue relentlessly to get the world’s attention.” And make it clear, make it clear, what’s going on. And he got it. “
Failure to do so, as happened with former President Donald Trump, would undermine America’s credibility, Biden said.
“The moment a president walks away from that, as the last one did, that’s the moment we start to lose our legitimacy around the world. It is who we are,” he said.
Tiankai denied that China is separating Uighur families in Xinjiang. “Let me be very clear. China is not doing these things,” he said on CNN.
READ: China says it has common interests with the US, must fight for healthy ties
Biden, who plans to present a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure proposal next week, said it would ensure more American investment in promising new technologies, such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
It said it aimed to return US investment in technology research and development closer to 2 percent of GDP invested in the 1960s from the current rate of around 0.7 percent.
“The future is in who can, in fact, own the future when it comes to technology, quantum computing, a wide range of things, even in medical fields,” he said.
“We are going to make real investments,” he said, noting that China spends three times more than the United States on infrastructure.
