US President, Joe Biden revealed he is looking to reset U.S.-China policy differently than his predecessor but claimed Chinese President Xi Jinping is lacking a democratic ‘bone in his body.’
“ [There’s] a lot to talk about, a whole lot to talk about,” Biden told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in an excerpt that aired Sunday on “Face the Nation.”
“He’s very bright. He’s very tough. He doesn’t have and I don’t mean this as a criticism, just the reality — he doesn’t have a democratic ‘small D’ bone in his body.”
“The question is, I’ve said to him all along, that we need not have a conflict,” he added, in explaining how he would relate to Xi differently than former President Donald Trump did.
“But there’s gonna be extreme competition. And I’m not going to do it the way he knows. And that’s because he’s sending signals as well. I’m not gonna do it the way Trump did. We’re gonna focus on international rules of the road.”
Biden also revealed that he hasn’t spoken with Xi since taking office in January, saying: “We haven’t had occasion to talk to him yet. There’s no reason not to call him.”
” I probably spent more time with Xi Jinping, I’m told, than any world leader has because I had 24, 25 hours of private meetings with him when I was vice president,’ he said. ‘Traveled 17,000 miles with him. I know him pretty well.’
This comes after Biden removed Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports from China as part of his new policies on U.S.-China relations.
