Biden calling China’s leader a ‘dictator’ opens new rift just after Blinken’s tensions-easing trip

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's remarks calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping a “dictator” and China a country with “real economic difficulties” drew fast condemnation from China on Wednesday, cracking open a new rift just after the two countries agreed to tentative steps to stabilise the relationship.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning condemned Biden's unusually pointed comments as “extremely absurd and irresponsible.”

The clash of words comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a visit to Beijing on Monday that sought to break the ice in a relationship that has hit a historical low. While both sides saw those talks as productive, they did not result in any significant breakthroughs beyond an agreement to return to a broad agenda for cooperation and competition.

China's quick response to Biden, a president known for seemingly off-script remarks that venture beyond his administration's policies, raises questions whether his remarks would undo the limited progress that had been made in Blinken's carefully engineered trip or whether the two sides would move on.

Biden's characterisation of China comes as the campaign for next year's presidential election is already taking off, with Republicans accusing him of being weak on China.

Biden also was preparing to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington on Wednesday evening for a lavish state visit where a central theme will be a shared wariness of China.

Biden, at a fundraiser in California on Tuesday night, referred back to January and February's two-week overflight of what the US says was a Chinese spy balloon. The balloon's surprise appearance over US skies roiled relations and transfixed the American public.

Speaking to wealthy donors at the event for his 2024 reelection campaign, Biden depicted Xi as out-of-touch and embarrassed by the incident, which ended with the Air Force shooting down the balloon just off the East Coast.

“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 told the crowd.

“No, I'm serious,” he added. “That was the great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn't know what happened.“

Biden also played down trade competition from China, which is the world's second-biggest economy after the United States but struggling to emerge from COVID-era financial troubles.

“By the way, I promise you, don't worry about China. Worry about China but don't worry about China,” Biden said. “I really mean it. China has real economic difficulties.”

Biden's remarks came hours after his secretary of state, in an interview with MSNBC, had called for the two countries to put the balloon incident behind them, saying it was a chapter that “should be closed.”

In Beijing on Wednesday, Mao told reporters that Biden's remarks “go totally against facts and seriously violate diplomatic protocol, and severely infringe on China's political dignity.”

“It is a blatant political provocation,” Mao said.

Mao also reiterated China's version of the balloon episode, saying the balloon was for meteorological research and had been accidentally blown off course.

Administration officials signalled Wednesday that Biden had no intention of walking back his comments.

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