WASHINGTON • A top US aide has said that President Joe Biden’s first foreign trip showed unity by the Group of Seven (G-7) rich nations and Nato in pushing back against China, but that Mr Biden was also ready to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Mr Biden showed an alternative to China by leading the G-7 in a new infrastructure initiative and that a Nato summit had, for the first time, succeeded in “truly taking the security challenge posed by China seriously”.
In Europe this week, Mr Biden sought to rally G-7 and Nato leaders around an agenda that included re-opening probes into the origin of the coronavirus, pushing back against Beijing’s heavy hand in Hong Kong and Xinjiang and calling for a Western competitor for Mr Xi’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
“The Biden administration’s priority has been to strengthen ties with like-minded countries as part of a broader strategy to persuade Beijing to recalibrate and revise its policies,” said Dr Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Such an approach has drawn attention in Beijing. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said this week, following Mr Biden’s push for the G-7 to agree on a strategy to counter China’s influence, that the “US is ill and very ill indeed”. He added: “The G-7 had better take its pulse and come up with a prescription.”
One of the trip’s headline announcements – a truce in the years-long feud between Boeing and Airbus – was aimed in part at China. The deal will “protect jobs and protect technology in Europe and the United States against China’s predatory practices”, Mr Sullivan said on Thursday.
“The bottom line is that Joe Biden confidently and skilfully donned the mantle of leader of the free world on this trip,” Mr Sullivan told reporters.
“The previous president had ceded that mantle and this president has now emphatically reclaimed it,” Mr Sullivan added, referring to Mr Donald Trump, who frequently clashed with US allies. The summits have “laid the groundwork for proving the case that democracies can deliver for their own people and for people around the world”, Mr Sullivan said.
His remarks came after expected criticism from Mr Trump’s Republican Party, which accused Mr Biden of not being forceful enough.
Mr Sullivan also said Mr Biden would welcome a chance to speak further to Mr Xi. The two had a lengthy phone call in February but in-person interaction has been limited to a tense meeting in March between Mr Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top Chinese officials in Alaska.
After meeting another frequent US adversary, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Geneva on Wednesday, Mr Biden said there was no substitute for in-person talks. Mr Biden’s view “also applies to China and President Xi Jinping. He will look for opportunities to engage with President Xi going forward”, Mr Sullivan said.
He said there were no plans scheduled to meet Mr Xi but noted that both presidents were likely to take part in a summit of the Group of 20 major economies, to be held in Italy in October.
“Soon enough, we will sit down to work out the right modality for the two presidents to engage,” Mr Sullivan said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG