Biden says call with China's Xi Jinping lasted two hours
11 February 2021
President Biden told reporters on Thursday that his call the prior evening with China's Xi Jinping had lasted two hours.
Why it matters: Biden summed up his view on China during the brief remarks from the Oval Office on Wednesday, saying, "If we don't get moving they're going to eat our lunch."
- Biden cited in particular China's efforts on high-speed rail and electric vehicles, saying the U.S. would have to "step up" to compete effectively. The comments came during a meeting with bipartisan senators to discuss infrastructure.
- Flashback: Biden made almost the exact opposite comments on the campaign trail in 2019. “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man," he said at the time, adding, "they're not competition for us."
Wednesday evening's call coveredthorny topics including the crackdown in Hong Kong, China's apparent genocide in Xinjiang, and Beijing's aggression toward Taiwan, according to a White House readout.
- Biden said Thursday that it was a "good conversation" between two leaders who know each other well based on their interactions while Biden was vice president.
The big picture: Shortly before the call with Xi, Biden announced a new Pentagon task force on China and the White House unveiled the most detailed portrait yet of the administration's policies on China.
- Senior administration officials told reporters that Biden agreed with Donald Trump's "basic proposition of an intense strategic competition with China," but that he'd approach it very differently.
- Go deeper
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.