Joe Biden blasts Xi Jinping, says US will hold China 'accountable to follow rules'

In his first news conference in the East Room of the White House since taking the office in January, US President Joe Biden on March 25 said that Washington is working with its partners and allies to hold China accountable to adhere to the rules. Concerning China, Biden had made similar remarks in the first Quad leaders summit held earlier this month with Prime Ministers of India, Japan, Australia. Biden also called for democracies to work in cooperation against China. 

Joe Biden addressed his first solo news conference from the White House on Thursday (local time) after taking the office on January 20. The US President also said that he is going to call for an alliance of democracies to convene at Washington DC to “discuss the future.”

"Earlier this month, and apparently got the Chinese attention, that's not why did it, I met with our allies and -- how we're going to hold China accountable in the region, Australia, India, Japan, the United States, the so-called Quad because we have to have democracies working together," he said.

While talking about the alliance in Washington, Biden asserted, "We are going to make it clear that, in order to deal with these things, we are going to hold China accountable to follow the rules, to follow the rules, whether it relates to the South China Sea or the North China Sea or the agreement made on Taiwan or a whole range of other things.”

What Biden thinks of Xi Jinping?

In the same Thursday news conference which was attended by at least 30 reporters from several media outlets along with two foreign correspondents, Biden revealed what he thinks of Chinese President Xi Jinping as a person and a leader. After becoming the US President, Biden said he spoke with Jinping over the phone only once and the call, he revealed, lasted for two hours. Further, as vice president under former US President Barack Obama, Biden said he spent several hours together with Jinping. According to US President, his Chinese and Russian counterparts think “autocracy is the wave of future.”

"It was very, very straightforward. He doesn't have a democratic with a small D bone in his body, but he's a smart, smart guy. He’s one of the guys like Putin who thinks that autocracy is the wave of the future. Democracy can't function in an ever-complex world," he said.

What Biden told Jinping in a two-hour-long chat?

The US President said that when he got elected and Jinping called to congratulate him, both leaders made several points clear to each other. Of the two-hour-long conversation, Biden said, “ I made it clear to him again what I told him in person on several occasions, that we're not looking for confrontation, although we know there will be steep, steep competition.”

“Two, that we'll have strong competition but we'll insist that China play by the international rules, fair competition, fair practices, fair trade. Thirdly, in order to compete effectively, I indicated that we're going to deal with China effectively, and we're going to need three things to do that I'm telling our people. First, we're going to invest in American workers and American science," said the US President.

Image credits: AP