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| Xi Jinping/Joe Biden |
Following a meeting between the two leaders in Beijing, US President Joe Biden referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator.
At a fundraiser gathering in California on Tuesday, Biden referred to Xi as a dictator.
A day after meeting Xi for talks in Beijing with the goal of reducing tensions between the two giants, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made some remarks on behalf of the US government.
In addition, Biden claimed that Xi was embarrassed by the US shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon.
Beijing declared that it "firmly opposes" Biden's remarks.
At the fundraiser, Biden stated, "Xi Jinping didn't know it was there, which is why he got extremely unhappy when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of surveillance gear in it.
"That causes dictators a lot of shame. When they were unaware of what had occurred, he continued.
The balloon floated over the US mainland before being shot down by American military jets in February, according to China, which claims it was doing weather monitoring.
Later, Washington said that it was a component of a vast Chinese program for gathering intelligence. Following the event, Mr. Blinken, who was scheduled to travel to Beijing at the moment, postponed his journey.
Biden's comments were described as "extremely absurd and irresponsible" by Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry.
She said that the remarks were "an open political provocation" that went against diplomatic etiquette while addressing the media on Wednesday during a regularly scheduled news briefing.
The weekend visit by US Secretary of State Blinken, the first in nearly five years, reopened high-level dialogue between the two nations.
While Blinken suggested that all parties were open to further negotiations, Xi claimed that some progress had been made in Beijing. But there are still some significant distinctions between the two nations.
Following a trade battle under Trump, Beijing's strong claims over Taiwan, and the shooting down of the suspected spy balloon, relations have deteriorated.
