Biden “There is no d to the bones of Xi Jinping.”

US President Joe Biden said on the 7th (local time) that “it is not necessary to collide with China, but there will be intense competition.” This is the first broadcast interview after taking office with CBS’Face the Nation’.

In an interview, he said, “Why haven’t you spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping yet?” when asked by the moderator, “We haven’t had a chance to talk to each other, but there is no reason not to call.” Forty-five days have passed since President Biden took office on the 20th of last month, but calls between the US and China have not been made.

“I know him quite well,” he said. “As Vice President, I had a personal meeting with President Xi for 24 to 25 hours, and because I traveled 17,000 miles (about 27,350 km) in various international stages, I would have spent more time with him than the world leaders.” At the same time, he hurried to Xi, saying, “He was very bright and strong, but he could not embody democracy at all.” He wrote the expression “doesn’t have a democratic, small D, bone in his body.” “It’s not about criticizing it, it’s the reality,” he said.

“Can’t lift sanctions without stopping Iran’s uranium enrichment”

At the time of their visit to California in 2012, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and US Vice President Joe Biden are holding T-shirts. [AP=연합뉴스]

His predecessor, former President Donald Trump, used the phrase “I have a good relationship with him” as an idiom to President Xi while publicly denouncing China and fought a trade war. On the other hand, President Biden has questioned President Xi’s head from the start. Former President Trump tried to make economic gains based on the terms of the deal, but President Biden foretold that he would deal with China with international norms such as democracy and human rights, the values ​​that the United States has traditionally led.

Ewha Womans University’s Faculty of International Affairs Professor Park In-hui explained, “The Trump-style transaction-oriented pressure was negotiated, but there was room for compromise, but Biden declared that he would press China with a larger framework of norms and values.”

President Biden also predicted in an interview that “we do not have to clash, but there will be intense competition.” However, he said, “I’m not going to do it the way he knows,” he said. “I will focus on the path of international norms, not the way Trump did.”

If Biden’s government faces China with the standards of democracy, human rights, and international norms, it will inevitably be burdensome for Korea, which has to navigate between the two countries through strategic ambiguity. Above all, the more’d’ (democraticism) is put to the fore, the more inevitable the Biden and Moon Jae-in administrations look at North Korea, which is worse than China in the one-party system, individual freedom, and human rights. In particular, the government is looking forward to high-level contact with the North and the US, taking the Trump administration as a model example, but it is unclear whether President Biden will respond.

President Biden said on Iran’s sanctions, “no sanctions can be lifted without stopping the enrichment of uranium.” It has announced to Iran that it will stop its nuclear activities, but there are observations that it will make the same request to North Korea.

Kim Hong-gyun, former head of the Korean Peninsula Peace Bargaining Headquarters, advised, “For issues that clearly deviate from democratic principles such as the Hong Kong crisis, Korea should speak out and go in a way that demands what the US and China will demand.” Some advice is to consider US domestic politics. Professor Jeong-Geon Seo of the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Kyunghee University said, “It is essential to cooperate with China in restoring the climate change agreement and the Iran Nuclear Agreement (JCPOA) required by key supporters of the Democratic Party. It is expected to use a cooperating Kang-On strategy.”

“America, group immunity becomes difficult before the end of summer”

President Biden said in an interview that day, “The idea that collective immunity could be reached long before the end of this summer has become very difficult.” “If we had enough vaccines, it could have been a different story, but (in reality) it wasn’t,” he added. “So we’re trying our best to produce more vaccines.”

However, the rate of vaccination in the United States is faster than before. Recently, more than 1.3 million people a day get the Corona 19 vaccine. Accordingly, CBS predicts that by the end of this year, 75% of Americans will be vaccinated against Corona 19. Experts say that 70-80% of the population will reach the level of collective immunity if they are vaccinated.

The reason the U.S. is in such a speed battle is because the mutant virus is spreading rapidly. On the 8th, the Washington Post (WP) reported that the Scripps Institute and others had published related papers on’medRxiv’, a pre-release site for medical papers. According to this, the mutant virus from the UK is about 35 to 45% more contagious than other coronavirus species. In addition, the number of positive test cases is doubling every 9.8 days nationwide, increasing exponentially.

“The British mutant virus could be the most dominant virus in the United States by March,” the researchers said. “Crucial and immediate public health action is required.”

Reporters Lim Sun-young and Lee Yoo-jeong [email protected]