US looking for responsible competition with China, White House says

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ The United States is looking for a competition with China in a responsible way, the White House has said, a day after the two countries agreed to have a virtual leadership summit before year-end.

“We’re not looking for a conflict with China; we’re looking for a competition, and we want to do that in a responsible way,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday aboard Air Force One travelling to President Joe Biden to Chicago.

A day earlier, White House officials said that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan during a meeting with Chinese Communist Party Politburo Member and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission Yang Jiechi in Zurich agreed in-principle for a virtual summit meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Biden Administration believes that a leader-to-leader engagement is essential and is an important part of its effort to responsibly manage the competition, Jean-Pierre said. “As far as the meeting that Jake Sullivan had with his counterpart, with the — in Zurich, they were candid, they were direct, they were wide-ranging,” she said.