Joe Biden asks Asian, European partners to challenge China together

Addressing the virtual Munich Conference on Friday, Mr Biden said, 'You know, we must prepare together for a long-term strategic competition with China.

'How the United States, Europe, and Asia work together to secure the peace and defend our shared values and advance our prosperity across the Pacific will be among the most consequential efforts we undertake.

'Competition with China is going to be stiff. That’s what I expect, and that’s what I welcome, because I believe in the global system,' he added.

'Europe and the United States, together with our allies in the Indo-Pacific, worked so hard to build over the last 70 years,' said the US President.

He stressed the need to push back against the Chinese government’s economic abuses and coercion that undercut the foundations of the international economic system.

"Everyone - everyone - must play by the same rules. US and European companies are required to publicly disclose corporate governance - to corporate governance structures and abide by rules to deter corruption and monopolistic practices. Chinese companies should be held to the same standard.

"We must shape the rules that will govern the advance of technology and the norms of behaviour in cyberspace, artificial intelligence, biotechnology so that they are used to lift people up, not used to pin them down," Mr Biden said, according to a transcript of his speech accessed here.

He called for standing up for democratic values and pushing back against those, who would monopolise and normalise repression.

He also said, 'Competition must not lock out cooperation" in dealing with common challenges, such as the climate change and COVID-19 pandemic.