President Joe Biden called Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator” on Tuesday, sparking a furious reaction from Beijing in a sudden outburst after talks between the two superpowers aimed at easing their geopolitical animosity.
Speaking at a California fundraiser, Biden suggested Xi was embarrassed because he didn’t know about the alleged Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States earlier this year, despite his status as China’s all-powerful leader.
China quickly responded to the remarks, calling them “extremely absurd and irresponsible”.
President Xi’s description came a day after a high-level visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing, an effort to ease tensions between the US and China. Blinken told NBC News after his visit that the “spy balloon chapter should be closed” and both sides pledged to try to stabilize the relationship.
Biden, however, revisited the issue before a room of more than 125 attendees that included California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who also spoke at the fundraiser.
“The reason Xi Jinping was so upset when I shot up that balloon with two boxcars full of spy equipment is that he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said.
“This is a great shame for the dictators,” he added, “when they didn’t know what happened.”
Beijing’s response was swift.
Mao Ning, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said Biden’s comments were “extremely absurd and irresponsible, seriously contradicting the basic facts.” He accused the president of “serious violation of diplomatic protocol and grave violation of China’s political dignity, which is an open political provocation.”
China, he told a daily briefing, was “very dissatisfied”.
Biden said the Chinese balloon went off course without Xi telling him, adding that “when it was shot down, he (Xi) was very embarrassed and denied that he was even there.” He did not return comment later Tuesday at a second fundraiser.
Biden was referring to an alleged Chinese spy balloon that floated over the United States in February. The balloon, which China maintains was a civilian unmanned aircraft conducting weather research, was shot down by the Air Force off the coast of South Carolina after it hovered over sensitive military installations North American The incident became an intense point of diplomatic conflict between Beijing and Washington.
While Blinken’s visit was considered relatively successful — Biden said at the fundraiser that his secretary of state did “a good job” — China and the United States have not re-established several channels of military communication. which were cut after former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, a self-governing island off the coast of China that Beijing claims as its own territory. There was no progress at the meeting beyond an agreement that both sides needed to stabilize the relationship.
The two countries have had military tensions in recent weeks in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea that some have found particularly troubling. China said it was defending its national sovereignty in the two most recent cases. The United States described Beijing’s actions as dangerous and emphasized that American service members were operating in international airspace and waters.
Blinken’s visit was the first by a secretary of state since 2018. He had postponed a planned trip in February after the Chinese spy balloon debacle. Biden said last month that his plan with Xi to maintain an ongoing dialogue had been derailed by “this stupid balloon.”
At the first fundraiser Tuesday night, Biden said Xi had been most concerned about the Quad strategic security grouping, which is made up of the US, Australia, Japan and India. The group has spoken openly about acting as a buffer to Chinese interests, but Biden said he assured Xi that China needn’t worry.
Biden also told the crowd they should not worry about the recent friction between Beijing and Washington.
“Don’t worry about China. I mean, worry about China, but don’t worry about China,” he said as the crowd laughed.
Alexander Smith, Janis Mackey Frayer and Jennifer Jett contributed.
