U.S. President Joe Biden called President Xi a “dictator” at a press conference held after the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 15th (local time). Previously, the two leaders reached an agreement on the day to restore the high-level military dialogue channel between the two countries, which had been suspended after the Taiwan conflict, and to resume joint crackdown on drugs such as fentanyl. However, less than half a day later, President Biden made this statement.
President Biden held an exclusive press conference following the US-China summit held in Woodside near San Francisco on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. After finishing the scheduled Q&A, President Biden tried to leave the conference room but stopped due to a barrage of additional questions. When a White House reporter asked, ‘Do you still view him as a dictator even after the meeting with President Xi?’ President Biden responded, “He is a dictator,” adding, “He is someone who runs a communist country based on a completely different form of government than ours.” “It is true in that sense,” he said. “He has been a dictator since the 1980s.”
President Biden previously called President Xi a “dictator” in June. Regarding the violation of U.S. airspace by a Chinese reconnaissance balloon in February of this year, President Xi said he was not aware of this in the early stages of the incident and said, “It would be a great shame for dictators not to know what happened.”
At the time, China immediately protested. “We oppose the United States slandering China or disparaging China’s prospects,” Liu Fengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the United States, said in a statement to Reuters.
Jo Hye-sun,
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.