Biden says Chinese President Xi is a dictator. U.S. President Joe Biden labeled Chinese President Xi Jinping a tyrant and said he was humiliated when a Chinese balloon was blown off course over the US earlier this year.
Biden spoke a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Xi in China to de-escalate tensions.
“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 in it was he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said at a California event.
That shames dictators. They weren’t aware. That didn’t belong there. “Blown off course,” Biden said.
February saw a Chinese spy balloon over U.S. airspace. That incident and U.S.-Taiwanese visits have heightened U.S.-China tensions.
Xi became China’s most powerful leader after winning a third term as president in March.
Biden claimed China “has real economic difficulties.”
Industrial output and retail sales growth missed projections in May, indicating that Beijing must do more to stabilize the post-pandemic recovery.
This month, the World Bank estimated 1.1% U.S. growth for 2023, up from 0.5% in January and 5.6% Chinese growth from 4.3%.
In their Monday meeting, Blinken and Xi agreed to stabilize Washington-Beijing tensions to avoid war, but the secretary of state’s unusual visit to China yielded no results.
They agreed to more U.S. visits in the following weeks and months. Later on Tuesday, Biden stated John Kerry may visit China.
On Monday, Biden said Blinken’s tour had improved relations between the two countries.
On Tuesday, Biden noted that the Quad strategic security group—Japan, Australia, India, and the US—worried Xi. The U.S. president told Xi the Quad would not encircle China.
“He called and told me not to do that because it was putting him in a bind,” Biden added.
Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address China later this week.
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