US President Joe Biden on Thursday said he had made it clear to Chinese President Xi Jinping that the United States was not looking for confrontation but would insist that China play by international rules for fair competition and fair trade.

"He's one of the guys, like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, who thinks that autocracy is the wave of the future, (and) democracy can't function in an ever-complex world," Biden told a news conference at the White House.

Biden said he spent "hours upon hours" with Xi when he served as vice president under former President Barack Obama, and was convinced the Chinese leader believed that democracy doesn't have a future.