NSC Spokesman John Kirby: ‘In Some Cases, We Have Significant Concerns About China’s Behavior’

The Biden administration has “significant concerns” in some cases about China’s behavior when it comes to abiding by the international rules of the road, NSC spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin are meeting on Tuesday in Moscow.

Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asked, “Quickly about the meeting today, the Xi-Putin meeting. In November when President Biden met with Xi, he said, I want to make sure that every country abides by the international rules of the road. Does he think China is abiding by the international rules of the road?” 

KIRBY: In some cases, we have significant concerns about China’s behavior, particularly their coercive and aggressive behavior for instance in the South China Sea and pursuing false maritime claims, concerns about intellectual theft, and some trade practices, and the president’s been very open and honest about that, and he was when they met in Bali, but there are other areas where we believe there’s room for cooperation with China, and we want to be able to pursue that too, but in order to do that, Peter, you got to keep those lines of communication open.