President Joe Biden will tell Xi Jinping that China must ‘play by the rules of the road’ like a responsible nation, a senior US official says
US and China flags ahead of a meeting in Beijing, China. File photo: REUTERS/JASON LEE
The US and China, the world’s biggest economies, disagree on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, Beijing’s expanding nuclear arsenal and its stepped-up pressure on Taiwan, among other issues. The official declined to answer questions on whether the US will send officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. Activists and US lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to boycott the Olympics.Xi, looking ahead to the games and a Communist Party Congress next year where he is expected to secure an unprecedented third term, is also keen to avoid heightened tensions with the US , while pushing back over the Taiwan issue.
“Both sides hold the other with deep suspicion and are taking substantive steps to compete against the other in economics, security and politics,” said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.