Joe Biden and Xi Jinping
US President Joe Biden compared his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to ‘dictators’ during a Democratic Party donors reception in front of the media on Tuesday.
Biden said at a fundraiser in northern California that Xi was enraged over an incident in February in which a Chinese balloon, which Washington claims was used for spying, sailed over the US before being shot down by American military jets.
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment is he didn’t know it was there”, Biden explained.
He further stated, “I’m serious. That was a great embarrassment for dictators when they didn’t know what happened”.
President Joe Biden’s words came just days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken finished a visit to Beijing aimed at re-establishing communication lines between the two global powers in order to prevent conflict.
With the February balloon incident, China and the United States escalated their multifaceted rivalry into a full-fledged diplomatic crisis.
Beijing denounced President Joe Biden’s remarks on Wednesday as an ‘open political provocation’.
At a press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, “The relevant remarks by the US side are extremely absurd and irresponsible, and they seriously violate basic facts, diplomatic protocol, and China’s political dignity”.
“China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to this”, Mao Ning added.
Biden, who is seeking re-election at the age of 80, dismissed fears about China on Tuesday, telling donors that “China has real economic difficulties”.
Still on China and Xi, Biden stated, “We’re in a situation now where he wants to have a relationship again”.
“Blinken did a good job on his trip to Beijing, but it’s going to take time”, claimed Biden.
The US president did bring up another thorny issue concerning communist-ruled China: a recent summit at which leaders from Australia, India, Japan, and the US – known as the Quad group – tried to improve peace and security in the Asia-Pacific maritime region.
Biden stated that the four countries are working hand in hand in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.
“What he was really upset about was that I insisted that we unite the… so-called Quad”, Biden added.
Tuesday was not the first time Biden delivered substantial, even contentious, remarks at fund-raising receptions, which are typically small-scale events where cameras and recorders are prohibited but journalists may listen to and transcribe the president’s opening remarks.
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