China, US face off at United Nations amid concerns over growing authoritarianism

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission. U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping traded veiled barbs in their speeches to a United Nations general assembly meeting on climate change, with Xi hitting out at "ideological disputes" and Biden warning against authoritarianism and referring to the mass persecution of ethnic minorities in China's Xinjiang region. "The authoritarians of the world may seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy, but they're wrong," Biden told the U.N. "The future will belong to those who give their people the ability…