U.S. President Joe Biden reaffirmed his characterization of Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” during a solo news conference on Wednesday, following four hours of summit talks between the two leaders on the outskirts of San Francisco.
In response to a reporter’s question about whether his views on Xi had changed since June, Biden asserted, “Look, he is. He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours.”
China’s foreign ministry swiftly expressed strong opposition to Biden’s remarks, labeling them as “extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation.” Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, without explicitly mentioning Biden, stated, “It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage U.S.-China relations; they are doomed to fail.” Mao declined to identify these “some people” in response to a follow-up question.
Xi Jinping, who secured a third term as president last March with unanimous support from China’s National People’s Congress, has been characterized as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. Over the past decade, Xi has concentrated power in policy-making and the military while tightening control over media freedoms.
The Chinese delegation, in the United States to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, offered no immediate response to Biden’s comments. Meanwhile, hundreds of Beijing critics staged a protest in the city’s downtown, chanting slogans such as “free Tibet” and “free Hong Kong.”
This latest exchange echoes a similar incident in June when Biden first referred to Xi as a dictator, prompting China to dismiss the remarks as absurd and a provocation. Despite the tensions, both nations engaged in extensive talks aimed at improving strained relations, leading to Wednesday’s summit meeting.
