conflicts
Biden stands by “dictator” comparison with regard to Xi
US President Joe Biden during a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping before the G20 summit in November 2022. Photo
© Alex Brandon/AP/dpa
Beijing calls it a “political provocation”: At an election campaign event, the US President indirectly refers to his Chinese counterpart as a “dictator”. Joe Biden doesn’t want to back down.
US President Joe Biden stands by his recent “dictatorship” statement about China’s head of state Xi Jinping. Asked whether the statement criticized by Beijing undermines the recent rapprochement between the two countries, Biden said in Washington yesterday: “The answer is no.”
He stressed that he would “not change much” from speaking out what he believes to be the facts regarding China. At the same time, he emphasized that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a “great trip” to China behind him. “I expect to meet President Xi in the near future,” Biden said.
At a campaign event in the state of California on Tuesday, the US President said Xi Jinping was upset at not knowing about the Chinese surveillance balloon that flew over the United States in February. “It’s a huge embarrassment for dictators not to know what was happening,” Biden said. The affair surrounding the alleged spy balloon, which was eventually shot down by the US Air Force, had led to a further deterioration in relations between the two countries.
The Chinese government reacted with outrage to Biden’s statement, calling it “absurd and extremely irresponsible”. It is a “violation of basic facts and diplomatic protocol,” a “political provocation.”
Biden’s “dictator” comparison came immediately after US Secretary of State Blinken’s visit to Beijing on Sunday and Monday, when both sides had only just announced their intention to stabilize ailing relations.