US intelligence agencies found no direct evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic stemmed from an incident at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, a report declassified on Friday said. The four-page report by the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI) said the US intelligence community still could not rule out the possibility that the virus came from a laboratory, however, and had not been able to discover the origins of the pandemic. “The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the Covid-19 pandemic,…
Tag: Joe Biden
China reportedly rebukes US ambassador after Biden called Xi a ‘dictator’
The Chinese government has reportedly reprimanded the US ambassador to China over comments made by President Joe Biden in which he referred to President Xi Jinping as a “dictator”. Nicholas Burns received the diplomatic note hours after Biden made comments about Xi at a fundraiser in California, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing three unnamed US officials. At the fundraiser on Tuesday, Biden said that Xi was unaware of the alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down in US airspace in February, adding: “That’s a great embarrassment for…
New Zealand PM disagrees with Joe Biden over Xi Jinping ‘dictator’ remark
New Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkins has disagreed with US President Joe Biden’s remark that Xi Jinping is a “dictator”, as he prepares to meet the Chinese leader on an official trade trip to China. “No, and the form of government that China has is a matter for the Chinese people,” Hipkins told reporters when asked about Biden’s description. Asked whether the Chinese people had a say in the form their government took, he said: “if they wanted to change their system of government, then that would be a matter…
‘India is now a linchpin’: US looks to Narendra Modi’s visit to counter China
The symbolism of the visit will be hard to avoid. As Narendra Modi arrives in Washington DC on Wednesday – the capital of a country he was once prohibited from visiting for almost 10 years – he will join the ranks of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of the few leaders to address a joint session of Congress more than once. Statements from US officials ahead of the visit have been rapturous on the subject of US-India relations, praising the “significant defence partnership” and describing it…
Biden calls Chinese president Xi a ‘dictator’ a day after Blinken visit aimed at easing tensions
US president Joe Biden has called Chinese president Xi Jinping a dictator and said Xi was very embarrassed when a Chinese balloon was blown off course over the US earlier this year. Biden made the remarks one day after secretary of state Antony Blinken met Xi on a trip to China that was aimed at easing tensions between the two countries. “The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he…
Joe Biden’s advisers say he doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into ‘headlong clash’ between US and China
Joe Biden’s senior advisers have acknowledged countries in the Indo-Pacific don’t want to be “trampled by a headlong clash” between the US and China. In a webinar with an Australian audience on Friday, senior White House national security council (NSC) officials said the US president wanted to give allies and other close partners “breathing space” to engage with China constructively. Edgard Kagan, the NSC’s senior director for east Asia and Oceania, said Biden had been listening to the region’s concerns. “I think the president is very focused on the fact…
Australia, India, Japan and US take thinly veiled swipe at China
The leaders of the Quad group – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – delivered a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing’s behaviour on Saturday at a summit in Hiroshima. The US president, Joe Biden, and his three partners in the group did not mention China by name but the communist superpower was clearly the target of language in a joint statement calling for “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain”. “We strongly oppose destabilising or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion,”…
The cancelled Quad summit is a win for China and a self-inflicted blow to the US’s Pacific standing
The Chinese government is probably the biggest winner from Joe Biden’s decision to pull out of his trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, forcing the cancellation of the Quad summit in Sydney. Chinese state media outlets won’t need to muster much creative energy to weave together some of Beijing’s preferred narratives: that the US is racked by increasingly severe domestic upheaval and is an unreliable partner, quick to leave allies high and dry. To make matters worse for the US’s standing in the region, Biden’s planned visit to PNG…
In new battle for the Pacific, US and China force regional states to take sides | Simon Tisdall
US efforts to counter Chinese military expansionism and political influence in the Indo-Pacific took another significant step forward last week with an agreement to deepen defence and security ties with the Philippines. Yet US president Joe Biden’s success in developing bilateral and multilateral alliances may have more to do with growing wariness across the region about Beijing than a sudden desire for closer partnership with Washington. Many people in smaller, traditionally non-aligned countries, worried about getting caught in the middle, would probably prefer their governments not to take sides at…
King’s coronation: who’s on the guest list and who isn’t (and why)
There will be no Joe Biden, but more than 100 other heads of state have accepted invitations to the king’s coronation, with the 2,300-strong guest list also including UK parliamentarians, celebrities and a large number of community and charity representatives. The US president, who is unable to attend, will be represented by the first lady, Jill Biden. She will be joined by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, while Germany and Italy will send their ceremonial presidents Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Sergio Mattarella, rather than their heads of government Olaf Scholz and…