Joe Biden still considers Chinese president Xi Jinping to be a “dictator”.
The US president announced during a solo news conference on Wednesday (15.11.23) that his views on his Chinese counterpart had not changed – just hours after the pair had taken part in a carefully planned meeting in San Francisco.
Biden told CNN: “Well, look, he’s a dictator in the sense that he is a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours.
“Anyway, we made progress.”
The politician was rebuked by Beijing for the remark, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry describing it as “extremely erroneous” and an “irresponsible political manoeuvre, which China firmly opposes”.
Spokesperson Mao Ning said: “What needs to be pointed out is that there will always be some people with ulterior motives attempting to undermine China-US relations. They will not succeed in doing so.”
Biden’s comment could derail the positive reaction to the meeting with Xi, which the US president had described as “some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had”.
The two leaders have a deep relationship from their years on the political scene and Biden considers his counterpart to be “straight”.
He said: “I know the man, I know his modus operandi, looked into his eyes – we have disagreements. He has a different view than I have on a lot of things, but he’s been straight. I don’t mean that good, better, indifferent, just straight.”