The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that dealing with China will be "the biggest geopolitical test" of this century, singling out the rising Asian nation as having the power to pose serious challenges to the open international system the United States is defending.
"China, in particular, has rapidly become more assertive. It is the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system," Biden said in interim guidance on his national security policies released the same day.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who made his first major foreign policy speech since becoming Washington's top diplomat, described the challenges posed by China as "different" from those presented by countries such as Russia, Iran and North Korea.