BEIJING: US President Joe Biden said on Thursday US time that he remains prepared for cooperation with China in his first speech on foreign affairs at the Department of State after his inauguration, while also calling China the US’ “most serious competitor.” Chinese experts said this attitude is at least marginally more positive than the previous administration but a lack of clarity exists on how the US would like to cooperate.
In response to Biden’s latest remarks about being “ready for cooperation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday’s routine press conference that China and the US are two major countries that share broad common interests and crucial obligations.
Regarding rising problems like COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, the challenges facing all of humanity require China-US cooperation to increase, not to decrease, he noted.
“We hope the US will conduct more active and constructive dialogue, to work with China by focusing on cooperation and managing divergences, to promote peace and development for the world together with other countries around the globe,” Wang remarked.
Chinese scholars found the speech a little bland with no new eye-catching expressions. Biden conveyed clearer perspective on certain issues other than on China issues, proving that the new administration is still unready to make a clear China policy.
Biden mentioned China or Beijing six times in his speech but only one sentence about cooperation, with the rest all about competition and threat. The speech didn’t mention nuclear issues in Iran and North Korea, but elaborated on allies in Europe and the Middle East, and used harsh words on Russia.
Lü Xiang, an expert of US studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing, told the Global Times on Friday that the speech might disappoint many people worldwide who are expecting the new president of the US to address a clear and fresh foreign policy.
“Biden looked extremely tired throughout the whole speech, and the remarks provided no concrete measures, didn’t touch upon sensitive and tough issues and didn’t say how he would like to break with the previous administration on foreign policy. Maybe there are still divergences within Biden’s team, so he was frustrated” Lü said.
After harsh criticism of Russia in his speech, the president said “we’ll also take on directly the challenges posed by our prosperity, security, and democratic values by our most serious competitor, China.”
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
