Biden defends calling Chinese leader Xi a ‘dictator’, still expects to meet with him

WASHINGTON (AP) :

President Joe Biden on Thursday defended his harsh public comments on China, including calling President Xi Jinping a dictator, saying his words would have no negative impact on US-China relations and that he still expects to meet with Xi sometime soon.

Biden said his blunt statements regarding China are “just not something I’m going to change very much”.

The remarks, which drew a formal protest from China, opened a new rift just days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a visit to Beijing that was meant as a step toward stabilising ties and improving communications.

But Biden was undeterred.

“I expect to be meeting with President Xi sometime in the future, near-term. And I don’t think it’s had any real consequence,” he said.

ALLIANCE-STRENGTHENING MOVE

His latest rebuff to China came on the same afternoon he welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House in an alliance-strengthening move against their shared rival, China.

Just hours earlier, China’s embassy in Washington said it had delivered a formal protest, with Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng telling senior White House and State Department officials Wednesday that Washington “should take earnest actions to undo the negative impact” of what Biden said or “bear all the consequences”.

“With the latest irresponsible remarks about China’s political system and its top leader, people cannot help but question the sincerity of the US side” in seeking to stabilise relations, the embassy said in a statement. “The Chinese government and people do not accept any political provocation against China’s top leader and will resolutely respond.”

At a campaign fundraiser on Tuesday, Biden had called the Chinese president a dictator, depicted him as out-of-touch during last winter’s tumult over a Chinese spy balloon, and dismissed China as having “real economic difficulties”.

As an official government-to-government communication, the ambassador’s message to the Biden administration carries more weight than the critical comments made a day earlier by a Chinese government spokesperson to reporters. China gave no further details of how the ambassador delivered his message, whether it was seeking an apology from the Biden administration, or what the consequences would be.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen addressed the latest rift Thursday at an unrelated news conference in Paris, saying, “with respect to the comments, I think President Biden and I both believe it’s critical to maintain communication ... to clear up misperceptions, miscalculations. We need to work together where possible”.