For Joe Biden, it’s all about what he said, Xi said.

Posted by :

April 30, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'The most significant, consequential nation in the world'

For Joe Biden, it's all about what he said, Xi said.

Biden repeatedly referred to the profound challenge China and its strongman leader pose to US influence, economic primacy and democracy in his joint address to Congress on Wednesday night. It's not just a foreign policy issue — Biden tends to refract many domestic questions through a prism of China's growing might and the need to build American competitiveness.

He ought to know. He's probably spent more time with President Xi Jinping than any other American, after being tasked as vice president with building ties with the rising Chinese supremo. His claim to have racked up 17,000 air miles with Xi is classic Biden hyperbole but hints at what CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports is the US leader's preoccupation with his rival.

Biden's China theory intersects with his concern that democracy is under threat across the globe and that US foes see assaults on the political system from Donald Trump and his supporters as proof that the US model of governance is in trouble. The President often refers to his two-hour conversation with the Chinese leader, who called to congratulate him on his inauguration. "He is deadly earnest about becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world," Biden said Wednesday. "He and others — autocrats — think that democracy can't compete in the 21st century with autocracies because it takes too long to get consensus."

Biden's views on China filter into his domestic policy. His ambitious plan to share the benefits of US wealth with workers is partly motivated by a desire to drain the pool of alienation and economic dislocation exploited by populist grievance merchants like Trump. He also appears to be identifying a common enemy for estranged Democrats and Republicans to rally around; for example, he's pushing a climate plan conservatives abhor by arguing that the US should get the jobs forged by a new green economy rather than China.

Xi must view the fact that he has taken up residence in Biden's head with some satisfaction; it likely fuels a growing sense that soon the most important President in the world could be in Beijing, not Washington.

Subscribe to Meanwhile in America

The world and America

Russian dissident Alexey Navalny appeared in court with words for President Vladimir Putin.

NATO and the US began withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

Palestinians' first popular elections in 15 years were postponed.

And the Philippines told China to back off in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile in America, about a quarter of adults say they won't try to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

A facial recognition technology mixup sent this innocent man to jail.

And New York City is suing Tex-Mex chain Chipotle over employees' hectic schedules.

'The Russian military is an existential threat to the United States'

Russia's military is "an existential threat to the United States," declared top US military intelligence official Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, on Thursday. Addressing the Senate Armed Services Committee, Berrier also confirmed the enduring validity of a 2018 assessment that Russia is producing "hundreds of nuclear warheads each year." And while the US is adhering to the nuclear testing moratorium, Russia is not, he said.

'Havana syndrome' at home

Federal agencies are investigating at least two possible incidents on US soil, including one near the White House in November of last year, that appear similar to mysterious, invisible apparent attacks that have led to debilitating symptoms for dozens of US personnel abroad, write CNN's Katie Bo Williams and Jeremy Herb.

Multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN that while the Pentagon and other agencies have reached no clear conclusions on what happened, the fact that such incidents might have taken place so close to the White House is particularly alarming. In one incident under investigation, a National Security Council official grew sick near the Ellipse, the large oval lawn on the south side of the White House, according to multiple current and former US officials and sources familiar with the matter. In a separate 2019 episode, a White House official reported a similar incident while walking her dog in a Virginia suburb just outside Washington, GQ reported last year.

Their symptoms resembled those experienced by some CIA and State Department personnel overseas, in what has become known as "Havana syndrome." That name refers to a varying set of complaints that US personnel in Cuba began reporting in late 2016, including ear popping, vertigo, pounding headaches and nausea, sometimes accompanied by an unidentified "piercing directional noise."

Rumors have long swirled around Washington about similar incidents within the United States. But for now, investigators have not determined whether the puzzling incidents at home are connected to those that have occurred abroad or who may be behind them, sources tell CNN.

'We are in power ... so of course responsibility is first and foremost ours'

A cremation ground in New Delhi on Monday, April 26.

In a rare governmental mea culpa, Narendra Taneja, a spokesman for India's ruling BJP party, said Thursday that responsibility for the nation's devastating second wave of Covid-19 lies "first and foremost" with the government. "We are in power, we are the government in India, so of course responsibility is first and foremost ours, good or bad, whatever it is," Taneja told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. He did, however, argue that the crisis could not have been foreseen, and that the BJP "had no option but to go along with" holding mass rallies with thousands of people this spring in eastern West Bengal state.

Thanks for sticking with us through the week.

On Friday, Tokyo Olympics 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto holds a roundtable meeting with medical experts to discuss safety measures for the Summer Games. Biden travels to Philadelphia to mark train giant Amtrak's 50th anniversary. Germany celebrates Walpurgis night.

On Saturday, expect demonstrations around the world in celebration of International Workers' Day. American and Japanese astronauts splash down on the Crew Dragon "Resilience." Putin is expected to attend Easter Mass in Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral.

On Sunday, the winners of India's West Bengal state elections will be announced. The British city of Liverpool plans to host a 5,000-person festival without social distancing or mandatory face masks.