White House: China Has Become Increasingly Assertive
Kurt Campbell, the White House policy coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, reported that "it is possible for China and the United States to peacefully coexist, but the challenge is enormous."
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White House on Biden's Meeting with Jinping: "We'll have some sort of engagement before too long."
White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell, today, said that China and the United States can peacefully coexist, but the challenge is enormous, and Beijing had become increasingly assertive.
He addressed to the Asia Society think tank that US President Biden is set to host a summit later in the year with Australian, Indian, and Japanese leaders, which form the "Quad" group that Washington considers a means of opposing China.
In response to a question on when he expects the first meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping to take place, and whether it will take place during the G20 summit in October, Campbell replied, “My expectation will be that we’ll have some sort of engagement before too long.”
He also went on to say that the challenge for the US would be to "come up with a strategy that presented China with opportunities, but also a response if it takes steps “antithetical to the maintenance of peace and stability."
Campbell declared that China "had been increasingly assertive in recent times, taking on many countries simultaneously - a strategy that contrasted with how it operated in the 1990s."
Talks between both China and the US took place in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18th, which were described by a senior Chinese figure as "open and constructive," and by the US Secretary of State as "difficult and direct."
The Chinese Chamber of Commerce had declared in May that the Chinese and US commerce ministers in charge of the trade issues of both countries spoke in a telephone call for the first time during the Biden administration.
