"Biden Calls Xi Jinping 'Dictator' Again Amid 'Bilateral Relations Restoration'"

Leaving the Summit Press Conference, "Xi Jinping Is Indeed a Dictator"
White House and Chinese Government Have Yet to Issue Official Statements

U.S. President Joe Biden said on the 15th (local time) after a four-hour summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping that his view of Xi as a dictator remains unchanged. Foreign media paid close attention to whether Biden’s remark, calling Xi a dictator again, would have a tangible impact on the U.S.-China relationship, which had taken its first step toward normalization.

At the end of a press conference following the summit, when asked by reporters if he would still call Xi a dictator after the meeting, President Biden replied, "As you know, he is," adding, "He has been a dictator since the 1980s." He further explained, "He is a dictator in the sense that he governs communism based on a form of government completely different from ours." Biden also said, "He is the man who leads the Communist Party."

President Joe Biden of the United States. [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

These remarks by President Biden came immediately after the U.S.-China summit, which he himself described as having made "substantial progress." The two leaders held their second face-to-face summit near Woodside, close to San Francisco, where the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was taking place. They agreed to cooperate on restoring military communication channels that had been suspended due to deteriorating bilateral relations and on blocking the distribution of fentanyl precursors.

Foreign media focused on whether Biden’s comments would strain the eased tensions between the U.S. and China following the summit. The U.S. magazine Time pointed out that "Biden’s blunt remarks could undermine efforts to ease tensions between the two countries." The U.S. political news outlet Politico assessed that "Biden’s candid evaluation of President Xi reflects the increasingly chilly relationship between the two major powers."

This is not the first time President Biden has called Xi a dictator. Earlier, in June at a fundraising event in California, Biden referred to Xi as a dictator while mentioning the Chinese surveillance balloon incident, which provoked a public backlash from the Chinese government. At that time, Biden’s remarks came just one day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China and met with Xi Jinping and Wang Yi, a member of the Communist Party of China’s Central Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Chinese government responded to Biden’s remarks by calling them "extremely absurd and irresponsible," stating that they "seriously violate basic facts and diplomatic etiquette, severely infringe upon China’s political dignity, and constitute an open political provocation."

Meanwhile, neither the White House nor the Chinese government has issued an official statement regarding Biden’s dictator remark as of yet. Chinese state media released a series of friendly evaluations immediately after the summit, describing it as a "frank dialogue" and expressing optimism about the future. Xinhua News Agency commented right after the meeting that "President Xi Jinping and President Biden exchanged candid and in-depth views on strategic, overall, and directional issues related to China-U.S. relations, as well as major issues concerning world peace and development."

It also cited President Xi’s opening remarks from the day, stating, "The Earth can accommodate both China and the U.S., and each country’s success is an opportunity for the other," and "The future of China-U.S. relations is bright."

Ryu Hong, editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, also posted on social media that the atmosphere of the summit was positive, writing, "China and the U.S. must cooperate, and the world needs China-U.S. cooperation." The China Economic Times, published by the Development Research Center of the State Council of China, said, "If we cooperate, both countries benefit; if we fight, both lose," and added, "The international community hopes that the China-U.S. leaders’ meeting in San Francisco will return bilateral relations to a healthy and stable development track."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.