US President Joe Biden has pledged that Washington would rival Beijing in a way that prevents such a competition from being escalated into a political standoff.
The White House said in a statement on Sunday that Biden had told an ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh that “the United States will compete vigorously [with China]…while keeping lines of communication open and ensuring competition does not veer into conflict.”
POTUS also vowed that the US would speak out over China’s human rights record, stressing the significance of lasting peace in the Taiwan Strait and ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, according to the statement.
The remarks came ahead of Biden’s meeting on Monday with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the run-up to the two-day Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Bali, Indonesia, which kicks off on November 15.
“I know him well, he knows me. We’ve just got to figure out where the red lines are and what are the most important things to each of us, going into the next two years”, the 46th US president previously said of China's leader.
Biden, who will sit down with Xi for the first time since taking office, has repeatedly slammed China over a spate of topics, incuding Beijing’s trade practices and its position on Taiwan.
The Beijing-Washington tensions over Taiwan escalated in early August, when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island despite China’s warning of the far-reaching consequences of the move.
Beijing condemned Pelosi’s trip, slamming it as a gesture of support for separatism, and launched large-scale military exercises in the vicinity of the island. Even so, other high-level US delegations have since visited Taiwan in the face of Beijing’s stern rhetoric.
China perceives Taiwan as an integral part of its sovereign territory and opposes any official ties between the island and other countries. Washington maintains active contacts with Taipei and is selling billions of dollars' worth of weapons to Taiwan.
In the South China Sea, Beijing lays claims to large swaths of territory, including the Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands, with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan having overlapping claims.
Chinese officials have repeatedly urged the US to stay out of the dispute and allow regional powers to sort out their differences independently.
Despite having no claims to the South China Sea territories, the US often sends its military vessels to the South China Sea to fulfill "freedom of navigation" missions. These draw harsh criticism from Beijing who describes such acts as "provocations" that pose a threat to regional security.