US President Joe Biden said Wednesday he still believes Chinese President Xi Jinping is a dictator, even as the two leaders made progress in their relationship during a meeting outside San Francisco.
“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,” Biden told CNN’s MJ Lee. “Anyway, we made progress.”
When asked about Biden’s latest comment at a Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing on Thursday, a spokesperson called it “extremely erroneous” and an “irresponsible political maneuver, which China firmly opposes.”
Gee, I hope the Chinese dictator isn’t offended.
You realize if Biden had failed to call Xi a dictator, they’d be squawking about how he was weak.
I’m sure he’s not; Xi knows what he is. They’ll make some statements taking offense, probably say this is an attack on Chinese sovereignty like they always do, then it will go away.