China urges dialogue with US as Joe Biden likely to take tough stance against Beijing

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday, December 7 said that Beijing and the US “should initiate dialogue at all levels”. This comes after reports suggesting that US President-elect Joe Biden may take a tough stance on China-related issues such as the South China Sea. Also, Biden is likely to come through with his pledge to mobilise America’s allies in determination to stand up to China. 

As per a report by ANI, Sputnik quoted Wang saying that “China and the US should initiate dialogue at all levels, any issue can be discussed at the negotiating table. Thus, it is possible to keep in touch on strategic and long-term issues”. He added, “The Chinese side is always ready to negotiate, the sides can draft a list [of topics] to promote dialogue, cooperation and to settle differences”. He said this at the meeting with the US-China Business Council’s Board of Directors. 

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Biden's stance on China 

Earlier in the year while campaigning for the US Presidential elections Biden had blasted Beijing for its actions in Hong Kong and termed its policies towards Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region as 'unconscionable'. Biden had also called the Chinese president a 'thug'. "This is a guy who does not have a democratic - with a small 'd' - bone in his body," Biden said during the February 25 Democratic Party primary debate with Bernie Sanders. "This is a guy who is a thug and who in fact has a million Uygurs in reconstruction camps, meaning concentration camps”. Over the same debate, Biden revealed that he once told Xi that the US would defy China's no-fly zone in the South China Sea and that the US has flown B-1 bombers through it. He further added, "We're gonna make it clear, they must play by the rules..”. 

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In a separate incident, during the month of November, while addressing a virtual forum Professor Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea said that "given Biden's background (as a veteran lawmaker), we will see more heads brought to bear on the problems worldwide". The online forum was organised by the Foreign Correspondents' Association of the Philippines. Also, speaking at the event, Southeast Asia specialist Carl Thayer said there would be less pressure on regional states to take sides amid the US-China tensions. The US alliance with Japan and South Korea would be 'less antagonistic' under Biden, whose officials were likely to hold informal talks over coffee with stakeholders to come up with a strategy to push back against China, Thayer said.

(with inputs from ANI)

Read: Biden May Be Hard On China Too; Trump May Run Again In 2024: Chinese Economist

Also Read: China Congratulates Joe Biden On US Election Win, Says 'we Respect Choice Of Americans'

(Image Credits: AP)