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Despite frosty talks, Biden will be good for U.S.-China relationship, says ex-defence secretary

[March 20, 2021] BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden "will be good for the relationship" between China and the United States, even though both sides might have "started a little on frosty side", former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen told a Beijing forum.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (2nd R), joined by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (R), speaks while facing Yang Jiechi (2nd L), director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office, and Wang Yi (L), China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister, at the opening session of US-China talks at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S. March 18, 2021. Frederic J. Brown/Pool via REUTERS

Speaking via video link to the China Development Forum, Cohen, who has known Biden since 1972, said U.S. engagement with China will be more professional, diplomatic and civil under Biden, as compared to the name-calling during Trump era.

China and U.S. top diplomats clashed publicly in their opening remarks at a meeting in Alaska this week, which ended hours before the forum in Beijing on Saturday, leading some observers to worry relations could be even worse than during the previous Trump administration, which saw ties sink to a historic low since diplomatic relations were established.

The private Alaska talks actually went better than what was displayed in public, David Rubenstein, a former U.S. government policy advisor and co-founder of Carlyle Group, told the forum.

But he does not expect a meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping within a year.

"That's a good thing," he said.

"Because this means they're working behind the scenes to make certain when the summit occurs, there will be something productive occurring at that summit," he said.

(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Editing by Kim Coghill)


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