Chinese President Xi Jinping was not in the room at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, summit in Phnom Penh. But Xi hovered over the proceedings just two days before he and Biden are due to have their much-anticipated first face-to-face meeting at the G20 summit in Indonesia. The Biden White House has declared Xi’s nation its biggest economic and military rival of the next century, and while the president never called out China directly, his message was clearly aimed at Beijing. “Together we will tackle the biggest issues of our time, from climate to health security to defend against major threats to the rules-based order and threats to the rule of law,” Biden said. “We will build an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, stable and prosperous, resilient and secure.” The U.S. has long derided China’s violation of the international rules-based order — from trade to shipping to intellectual property — and Biden sought to emphasize his administration’s solidarity in an area Americans too often overlook. . His work in Phnom Penh was aimed at setting the stage for his meeting with Xi – his first face-to-face meeting with the Chinese leader since taking office – which will take place on Monday at the G20 summit of the world’s richest economies, this year is held in Indonesia on the island of Bali. Much of Biden’s ASEAN agenda has been to resist Beijing. He had to push for better freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, where the US believes nations can fly and sail anywhere international law allows. The US has said that China’s resistance to this freedom challenges the rules-based world order. Additionally, in an effort to crack down on unregulated fishing from China, the US has launched an effort to use radio frequencies from commercial satellites to better monitor so-called dark shipping and illegal fishing. Biden also pledged to help the region’s infrastructure initiative – meaning China’s Belt and Road Initiative would be tackled – as well as leading a regional response to the ongoing violence in Myanmar. But it is the Xi meeting that will be the main event for Biden’s week abroad, which comes just after his party showed surprising strength in the US midterm elections, encouraging the president as he heads overseas. Biden will tour the globe, having made his first stop at a major climate conference in Egypt before arriving in Cambodia for two weekend summits before heading to Indonesia. There has been skepticism among Asian states about American engagement in the region over the past two decades. Former President Barack Obama took office with the much-lauded declaration that the US would “pivot to Asia,” but his administration was sidelined by growing involvement in wars in the Middle East. Donald Trump has pursued a more introverted foreign policy and has spent much of his time in office trying to broker a better trade deal with China while praising Xi’s authoritarian instincts. Declaring China as the United States’ greatest adversary, Biden again tried to focus on Beijing, but had to devote an extraordinary amount of resources to helping Ukraine fend off a Russian invasion. But this week is meant to refocus America on Asia – just as China, taking advantage of the vacuum left by America’s inattention, has continued to exert its power in the region. Biden said the ten nations that make up ASEAN are “the heart of my administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy” and that his time in office – which included hosting leaders in Washington earlier this year – begins “a new era in Our partnership”. However, he mistakenly identified the host country as “Colombia” while giving thanks at the start of his speech. “We’re going to build a better future, a better future that we all say we want to see,” Biden said. Biden was only the second US president to set foot in Cambodia, following Obama’s visit in 2012. And as Obama did then, the president on Saturday made no public remarks about Cambodia’s dark history or the role of of the United States in the nation’s tortured past. In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon authorized a secret carpet bombing campaign in Cambodia to cut off North Vietnamese traffic into South Vietnam. The US also supported a coup that led, in part, to the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, a bloodthirsty guerrilla group that went on to orchestrate a genocide that resulted in the deaths of more than 1.5 million people between 1975 and 1979. One of the regime’s infamous Killing Fields, where nearly 20,000 Cambodians were executed and dumped in mass graves, is just a few miles outside of downtown Phnom Penh. There, a monument of thousands of skulls stands as a living reminder of the atrocities committed just a few generations ago. White House aides said Biden had no scheduled plans to visit. As is customary, Biden met with the leader of the host country at the start of the summit. Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander, has ruled Cambodia for decades with almost no tolerance for dissent. Opposition leaders have been jailed and killed, and his government has been accused of widespread corruption, according to human rights groups. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said Biden “will engage across the board to serve American interests and advance America’s strategic position and our values.” He said Biden met with Hun Sen because he was the leader of the host country. US officials said Biden urged the Cambodian leader to make a greater commitment to democracy and to “reopen the political and political space” ahead of the country’s next election. This article is part of POLITICO Pro The one-stop solution for policy professionals who combine the depth of POLITICO journalism with the power of technology Exclusively breaking scoops and ideas Customized policy information platform A high-level public affairs network
