‘Out-compete’ China: Chris Coons, contender for Joe Biden’s secretary of state, talks bipartisan US policy
- Senator and close friend of the president-elect says Xi Jinping is convinced that America is in decline, and the US must show its system is ‘strong and vibrant’
- Biden is unlikely to quickly unwind Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, Coons says
US Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who is seen as a contender for secretary of state in the incoming Biden administration, told Reuters on Friday he hoped to see a bipartisan policy on China that would “out-compete” Beijing.
Coons also said in an interview that while the main US focus would have to be on competing with China, it was essential to cooperate with Beijing on areas such as climate change, global health and nuclear non-proliferation.
“I see clearly that China is a peer competitor. And we have to be able at the same time, to cooperate with China in those areas where it’s essential,” Coons said.
“There’s a whole series of areas where the world is only going to get safer and more stable if the United States and China cooperate, but our main focus has to be competing with China,” he said.
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A senator from Delaware, Coons is a close friend of former vice-president Joe Biden, who won the November 3 presidential election and is due to take office on January 20