Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was sharply critical of President Joe Biden's efforts to counter China on numerous fronts ahead of the Biden's meeting with Xi Jinping.
"The stakes of the competition simply cannot be overstated," McConnell said as he cited Chinese advancements in military capabilities and alliances, pursuit of rare minerals critical to supply chain, and aggressive efforts to steal Western technologies.
"Strategic competition with China is going to determine the course of the next century of American history. And yet, the Biden administration has too often met this historic moment with weakness and naïveté. Time and time again, it has sacrificed competition on the altar of green climate policy," he said.
"In the administration's quest to turn the American automobile industry electric, it has apparently made peace with sending American tax dollars to the Chinese industries that dominate battery making input. In pursuit of grand climate diplomacy, the administration's envoys have been literally laughed out of Beijing by a state that keeps on increasing its carbon emissions and has not plan to start cutting them literally for years," McConnell said.
He also complained that China is making large increases in military spending each year while the Biden administration's budget request "haven't even kept up with inflation."
McConnell said Congress can address those shortfalls when it deals with the National Defense Authorization Act and a national security supplemental spending bill in the coming weeks.
23 min ago
Biden is preparing to discuss Israel and Ukraine wars with Xi
Members of the American and Chinese delegations plan to discuss both conflicts in their intensive, multi-hour meetings in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to senior administration officials, and Biden and his national security advisers will seek to convince their Chinese counterparts it is in Beijing’s interests to use its leverage with Russia and Iran to keep both wars contained.
The global unrest ratchets up the stakes of Biden’s sit-down with Xi, their first face-to-face meeting in a year.
As Biden confronts two presidency-defining conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, he is eager to improve ties with Beijing and prevent another crisis from exploding on his watch. The US has sought to manage expectations for the talks, pointing to the restoration of military communication and an agreement to curb narcotics trafficking as top objectives.
Biden told reporters Tuesday that his objective in meeting with Xi will be to normalize communication channels between the two powers. Asked how he defined success for Wednesday’s sit-down, Biden said, “To get back on a normal course.”
He said that included “corresponding, being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another if there’s a crisis, being able to make sure that our militaries still have contact with one another.” American officials have been working to restore military communications with China after Beijing severed them last year.
Among US concerns is the risk for miscalculation or miscommunication that leads to conflict, including in the tense waters around Taiwan and the South China Sea.
"As I told you, we’re not trying to decouple from China,” Biden said Tuesday. “What we’re trying to do is change the relationship for the better.”
He cited China’s relative economic weakness and said he was looking to cement a relationship that benefits both countries.
Inside the remarkably intricate planning for Biden’s meeting with Xi
From CNN's MJ Lee and Kevin Liptak
US officials encountered a remarkable – even unprecedented – level of concern from their Beijing counterparts over how Chinese President Xi Jinping would be treated during his brief visit to the United States this week, people familiar with the matter said.
Over months of intricate planning, Chinese officials demonstrated an enormous amount of focus on ensuring every piece of choreography surrounding Xi’s summit with President Joe Biden on Wednesday – down to where Xi would sit and what he might see out of the window at any given moment – would guarantee the Chinese leader was treated with respect, sources familiar with the planning told CNN.
That included the timing and location of the summit, which is occurring amid a larger gathering of Pacific leaders in San Francisco. Instead of meeting in one of the many rooms set aside for bilateral meetings at the cavernous Moscone convention hall, the two men will meet at a separate location outside San Francisco city limits.
Even after confirming that Biden and Xi would meet, administration officials would only describe the location of the summit as the “Bay area,” citing security concerns. The still-to-be-disclosed venue for Wednesday’s summit was kept a secret from even members of the White House press corps traveling with Biden to San Francisco until hours before the meeting.
White House officials scouted a number of venues, sources said, taking into account security considerations and how much the space could accommodate. But there were more superficial factors at play, too — like the look and feel of the venue, one source said.
Even the flowers, food and drink have been subject to intense discussions between the two sides, which each hope the meeting will result in reduced strain between the US and China.
President Joe Biden’s high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to take place today at a historic estate south of San Francisco.
It's the first time in a year the two leaders are meeting face-to-face and it's Xi's first time in the US in six years.
The meeting sets up a test of whether Xi and Biden can slow a downward spiral in relations at a moment of heavy global turbulence. The fact that the meeting is happening at all is viewed by White House aides as a positive sign after months of friction.
The list of issues expected to arise in the talks includes restoring military-to-military communication between the two countries, the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine, climate change as well as countering narcotics trafficking.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was sharply critical of President Joe Biden's efforts to counter China on numerous fronts ahead of the Biden's meeting with Xi Jinping.
"The stakes of the competition simply cannot be overstated," McConnell said as he cited Chinese advancements in military capabilities and alliances, pursuit of rare minerals critical to supply chain, and aggressive efforts to steal Western technologies.
"Strategic competition with China is going to determine the course of the next century of American history. And yet, the Biden administration has too often met this historic moment with weakness and naïveté. Time and time again, it has sacrificed competition on the altar of green climate policy," he said.
"In the administration's quest to turn the American automobile industry electric, it has apparently made peace with sending American tax dollars to the Chinese industries that dominate battery making input. In pursuit of grand climate diplomacy, the administration's envoys have been literally laughed out of Beijing by a state that keeps on increasing its carbon emissions and has not plan to start cutting them literally for years," McConnell said.
He also complained that China is making large increases in military spending each year while the Biden administration's budget request "haven't even kept up with inflation."
McConnell said Congress can address those shortfalls when it deals with the National Defense Authorization Act and a national security supplemental spending bill in the coming weeks.
Members of the American and Chinese delegations plan to discuss both conflicts in their intensive, multi-hour meetings in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to senior administration officials, and Biden and his national security advisers will seek to convince their Chinese counterparts it is in Beijing’s interests to use its leverage with Russia and Iran to keep both wars contained.
The global unrest ratchets up the stakes of Biden’s sit-down with Xi, their first face-to-face meeting in a year.
As Biden confronts two presidency-defining conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, he is eager to improve ties with Beijing and prevent another crisis from exploding on his watch. The US has sought to manage expectations for the talks, pointing to the restoration of military communication and an agreement to curb narcotics trafficking as top objectives.
Biden told reporters Tuesday that his objective in meeting with Xi will be to normalize communication channels between the two powers. Asked how he defined success for Wednesday’s sit-down, Biden said, “To get back on a normal course.”
He said that included “corresponding, being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another if there’s a crisis, being able to make sure that our militaries still have contact with one another.” American officials have been working to restore military communications with China after Beijing severed them last year.
Among US concerns is the risk for miscalculation or miscommunication that leads to conflict, including in the tense waters around Taiwan and the South China Sea.
"As I told you, we’re not trying to decouple from China,” Biden said Tuesday. “What we’re trying to do is change the relationship for the better.”
He cited China’s relative economic weakness and said he was looking to cement a relationship that benefits both countries.
US officials encountered a remarkable – even unprecedented – level of concern from their Beijing counterparts over how Chinese President Xi Jinping would be treated during his brief visit to the United States this week, people familiar with the matter said.
Over months of intricate planning, Chinese officials demonstrated an enormous amount of focus on ensuring every piece of choreography surrounding Xi’s summit with President Joe Biden on Wednesday – down to where Xi would sit and what he might see out of the window at any given moment – would guarantee the Chinese leader was treated with respect, sources familiar with the planning told CNN.
That included the timing and location of the summit, which is occurring amid a larger gathering of Pacific leaders in San Francisco. Instead of meeting in one of the many rooms set aside for bilateral meetings at the cavernous Moscone convention hall, the two men will meet at a separate location outside San Francisco city limits.
Even after confirming that Biden and Xi would meet, administration officials would only describe the location of the summit as the “Bay area,” citing security concerns. The still-to-be-disclosed venue for Wednesday’s summit was kept a secret from even members of the White House press corps traveling with Biden to San Francisco until hours before the meeting.
White House officials scouted a number of venues, sources said, taking into account security considerations and how much the space could accommodate. But there were more superficial factors at play, too — like the look and feel of the venue, one source said.
Even the flowers, food and drink have been subject to intense discussions between the two sides, which each hope the meeting will result in reduced strain between the US and China.
