US President Joe Biden has said that Chinese President Xi Jinping is a dictator. He did this after a meeting between his foreign minister, Anthony Blinken, and Xi, which was said to ease tensions between the countries.
Biden also said Xi was embarrassed when a Chinese balloon was diverted and flew over the United States in February. The largest balloon – a spy balloon according to the US – was shot out of the sky by the US military and ended up in water.
Blinken and Xi said on Monday they wanted to remove the chill between Washington and Beijing so that no serious confrontations would occur. But they could not make much progress.
According to Biden, the relationship between the two countries is “on the right track.” He says Blinken made progress during his trip to China.
This is not the first time Biden has lashed out at Xi. During his 2020 election campaign, he called China’s president a “state criminal.”
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned this. A spokesman said Biden’s statements were “an affront to China’s political dignity” and “an obvious political provocation”.
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