The US will "take on directly the challenges posed to our prosperity, security and democratic values by our most serious competitor: China,” US President Joe Biden said on Thursday.

“We’ll confront China’s economic abuses, counter its aggressive, coercive actions, and push back on China’s attack on human rights, intellectual property and global governance,” Biden said in his address at the State Department.

At the same time Biden said the US was stood ready to “work with Beijing when it’s in America’s interest to do so,” alluding to his administration’s aim to cooperate on the threat posed by global warming and climate change.

In  a break from Donald Trump’s “America first” policy, Biden said that his administration would be "working with our allies and partners, renewing our role in international institutions and reclaiming our credibility and moral authority, much of which has been lost.”

Speaking to reporters just ahead of Biden’s speech, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the administration’s priority for its China trade policy was not to “get access” for multinational investment firms like Goldman Sachs, but to “deal with China’s trade abuses that are harming American jobs and American workers in the United States.”

Biden also announced a number of foreign policy initiatives, which include bringing to an end US support for Saudi Arabian-led attacks in strife-torn Yemen. “The war has to end,” said Biden, announcing the appointment of a special envoy to focus on the Yemeni conflict, in which more than 230,000 people have died and million rendered homeless amid widespread starvation.

He also put on hold the earlier planned troop withdrawals from Germany and a major increase of the US refugee admissions limit to 125,000 a year. The number had fallen to an all-time low of 15,000 during the last year of the Trump administration.