President Joe Biden’s plans to bolster the U.S. economic system will help the nation compete with China’s huge Belt and Road Initiative, former Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew stated on Wednesday.
The Belt and Road Initiative is China’s bold program to construct bodily and digital infrastructure that connects lots of of nations from Asia to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Many critics contemplate it Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature overseas coverage to broaden his nation’s world affect.
Lew, who was Treasury secretary from 2013 to 2017 below former President Barack Obama, identified that China’s Belt and Road Initiative has gained traction in the previous couple of years. At the identical time, the U.S. below former President Donald Trump retreated from the world stage, he stated.
President Joe Biden speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.
Leigh Vogel | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“The problem we now have is to take a look at our home challenges and to take a look at the locations the place we’re very sturdy and must be stronger,” Lew instructed CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.” He added that the U.S. is robust in know-how and innovation, training, and remaining open to expertise from round the world.
“We then stay up for the challenges of the future … we now have to interact in the world, we now have to interact with different international locations, working collectively. And you may’t say we’re not going to be there after which object when another person reveals up,” stated Lew.
Lew’s feedback got here as Biden has held meetings with Democratic and Republican members of Congress to debate his proposed $2 trillion infrastructure and economic restoration package deal.
The plan aims to rebuild U.S. infrastructure together with roads, broadband and utilities, in addition to put money into jobs coaching and analysis and growth.
U.S. and China working collectively
U.S.-China relations have remained rocky since Biden was inaugurated in January.
The two international locations have clashed on points starting from the autonomy of Hong Kong to alleged human rights abuses in China’s northwestern area of Xinjiang.
Despite their variations, Lew stated there are numerous areas the place the U.S. and China can work collectively. Those areas embrace local weather change, well being care and challenges with Iran and North Korea, stated the former Treasury secretary.
“I believe it is a mistake to be on a path the place both aspect is on the lookout for confrontation. It’s a mistake to disclaim that variations exist and there is a want to interact, making variations clear, but additionally to search for areas the place we will work collectively,” Lew stated.
“I’m hoping that issues like the conversations on local weather are the starting of a gap for discussions between our two international locations,” he added.
Chinese state media stated Wednesday that Xi will give a speech on Thursday by way of video convention at the world leaders local weather summit hosted by Biden.
Many additionally count on the leaders of the world’s two largest economies — and the largest carbon polluters — to have their first assembly on the sidelines of the summit.
— CNBC’s Jacob Pramuk and Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.
