Biden attacks Xi Jinping and other ‘autocrats’ in joint session address
The Biden administration has accused China of acting “aggressively” while North Korea has warned the US of an “all out showdown” as relations between Washington and its foes in the Asia-Pacific region worsen.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview that aired on Sunday that China had recently acted “more aggressively abroad” and was behaving “increasingly in adversarial ways”.
Asked by CBS News’ 60 Minutes if Washington was heading toward a military confrontation with Beijing, Mr Blinken said: “It’s profoundly against the interests of both China and the United States to, to get to that point, or even to head in that direction.”
He added: “What we’ve witnessed over the last several years is China acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact.”
It comes as North Korea lashed out at the United States and its allies in South Korea on Sunday in a series of statements saying recent comments from Washington are proof of a hostile policy that requires a corresponding response from Pyongyang.
“Our policy towards North Korea is not aimed at hostility. It’s aimed at solutions,” Jake Sullivan, Mr Biden’s national security adviser, said in an interview with ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday.
But Pyongyang accused Washington of insulting the dignity of the country’s supreme leadership by criticising North Korea’s human rights situation, calling it a provocation that shows the United States is “girding itself up for an all-out showdown”.
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North Korea lashed out at the United States on Sunday in a series of statements saying recent comments from Washington were proof of a hostile policy that requires a corresponding response from Pyongyang.
The statements, carried on state news agency KCNA, come after the White House on Friday said US officials had completed a review of North Korean policy.
“Our policy towards North Korea is not aimed at hostility. It’s aimed at solutions,” Jake Sullivan, Mr Biden’s national security adviser, said in an interview with ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday.
In one statement, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman accused Washington of insulting the dignity of the country’s supreme leadership by criticising North Korea‘s human rights situation.
This criticism is a provocation that shows the United States is “girding itself up for an all-out showdown” with North Korea, and will be answered accordingly, the unnamed spokesman said.
Tom Batchelor3 May 2021 08:37
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, has said in an interview that aired on Sunday that China had recently acted “more aggressively abroad” and was behaving “increasingly in adversarial ways”.
Asked if Washington was heading toward a military confrontation with Beijing, he told CBS News’ 60 Minutes: “It’s profoundly against the interests of both China and the United States to, to get to that point, or even to head in that direction.”
He added: “What we’ve witnessed over the last several years is China acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact.”
Asked about the reported theft of hundreds of billions of dollars or more in US trade secrets and intellectual property by China, Mr Blinken said the Biden administration had “real concerns” about the IP issue.
He said it sounded like the actions “of someone who’s trying to compete unfairly and increasingly in adversarial ways. But we’re much more effective and stronger when we’re bringing like-minded and similarly aggrieved countries together to say to Beijing: ‘This can’t stand and it won’t stand.’”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment on Mr Blinken’s interview.
Mr Blinken arrived in London on Sunday for a G7 foreign ministers meeting where China is one of the issues on the agenda.
In the interview, Mr Blinken said the United States was not aiming to “contain China” but to “uphold this rules-based order – that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we’re going to stand up and – and defend it”.
Tom Batchelor3 May 2021 08:15
Hello and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of developments from Washington, where Biden administration officials have been engaging in a war of words with China and North Korea.
Tom Batchelor3 May 2021 08:02