Biden Admin: Countries Don’t Have To Choose Between US And China

The U.S. Department of State said Friday that nations do not have to choose between the U.S. and China, despite the rival country acting against America’s best interests.

Daily Caller Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Dylan Housman asked State Department spokesman Vedant Patel if the U.S. still holds the position that nations do not have the choose between the two countries, given that China has recently acted against American interests. Housman pointed to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia and his plans to purchase Russian oil months after U.S.-imposed sanctions.

“You guys have repeatedly said that countries don’t have to choose between the U.S. and China. Secretary Blinken said this yesterday, in fact,” he said. “Is that still a tenable position in your eyes given how much China seems to be encroaching further and further on U.S. interests, especially recently?”

“That continues to be our policy and you’ve seen us make this point clear with countries recently, including in the context of the African Leaders’ Summit. As you mentioned, we the United States have a relationship with China, as do many of our allies and partners around the world, and it’s not for us to say what a bilateral relationship between any two other countries should necessarily look like,” Patel said.

Patel added that the State Department intends to outline the benefits of a strong relationship with the U.S. to other countries. (RELATED: State Dept Dodges Daily Caller Reporter’s Question On CCP Election Interference Through TikTok)

Xi recently visited Saudi Arabia to strengthen economic ties and celebrated the “milestone” relations between the two nations. The visit followed a tense meeting between President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) in July in a failed attempt to increase Saudi oil production, leading the White House to say it is “re-evaluating” its relationship with the Middle Eastern nation.

Housman added that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned that China’s influence on Africa is a “destabilizing threat.” Patel told the Daily Caller reporter that the U.S. strived to show African countries what a diplomatic relationship would look like at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit.

President Joe Biden hosted 50 African leaders at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit this week, where the president pledged to invest $1.8 million to transform “digital spaces to reflect feminist democratic principles” in Africa and $6.5 billion “to support peace, security, democracy, human rights, and governance in Africa.” The administration also intends to invest $55 billion in the continent’s health system, agriculture and security.