China slams Biden comments calling Xi Jinping a dictator: ‘Blatant political provocation’
WASHINGTON – China slammed President Biden Wednesday for calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator” in remarks to Democratic donors a day earlier, claiming the label was “extremely absurd and irresponsible.”
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao N🦋ing said Biden’s comments at a fundraiser in California “go totally against facts and seriously violate diplomatic protocol, and severely infringe on China’s political dignity.”
“It is a blatant political provocation,” Mao said during her daily press briefing. “China expresses strong dissatisfaction and opposition.”
Xi, whose government rubber-stamped his third five-year term in March, is largely considered an authoritarian figure expected to serve as “president for life.” While China technically has a Congress, it is run by a one-party system that falls in line with Xi’s aims.
Biden made the inflammatory statement while joking to his audience that they should not “worry about China” despite the nation’s acrimony for the United States and aggressive attempts to surveil the American homeland.
“No, but I really mean it,” he said. “China has real economic difficulties, and the reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boꩵxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there.”
“No, I’m serious. That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened,” he added.
Biden was referencing his early February order forಞ the military to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast. The craft had entered US airspace in Alaska and hovered over sensitive military sites as it traversed the continent. China had claimed the object was a weather balloon that was blown off course.
“That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States,” Biden claimed. “And [Xi] didn’t know about it. When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.”
The president’s comments were a bizarre reversal from earlier White House assessments that the balloon was a specialized surveillance balloon specifically sent to spy on the US from high above while moving at a rate that the missile-defense focused NORAD had previously not typically picked up on.
As she chided Biden for his words, Mao reiterated China’s claim that the object was harmless, saying the US “should have handled it in a calm and professional manner.”
“However, the US distorted facts and used forces to hype up the incident, fully revealing its nature of bullying and hegemony,” she said.
The criticism came days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing to meet with China’s top officials, including Xi. While Biden on Tuesday said Blinken “did a good job,” the visit accomplished little as China again refused to restart military-to-military communications with the Pentagon.
“The very important point,” Bien claimed, “is Xi’s in a situation now where he wants to have a relationship again.”
