The president of the United States, Joe Biden, said this Wednesday that he has not changed his opinion that the president of China, Xi Jinping, is a dictator. The controversial statement occurred within the framework of the meeting between the two that took place in San Francisco to try to improve as soon as possible one of the most important bilateral relations in the world.
Joe Biden says Xi Jinping is a dictator
Joe Biden held a press conference after four hours of talks with Xi Jinping in San Francisco before the APEC (Alliance for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting. A reporter asked him if he still held the view that Xi was a dictator, something he had already said last June. The response surprised all attendees. “It is. He is a dictator in the sense that he is a man who leads a country that is communist and has a different type of government than ours.”
As expected, the Chinese government has already responded by stating that it firmly opposes Biden’s comments. “This statement is extremely incorrect and an irresponsible political manipulation. It should be noted that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who will try to incite and damage US-China relations. They are destined to fail,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning.
When Joe Biden made a similar comment calling Xi Jinping a dictator in June, China called the comments a provocation. However, that incident did not stop both countries from continuing to work towards the long-awaited bilateral meeting in San Francisco. Now, Biden could have thrown away all those advances with his words. Last March, Xi Jinping secured a third term as China’s president when his country’s parliament voted unanimously in his favor in an election in which there were no other candidates.
This story was written in Spanish by Miguel Fernandez in Cultura Colectiva News