MADRID, June 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
United States President Joe Biden has branded his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a “dictator” in a statement made a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing to ease strained bilateral relations between the two countries .
At a benefit event in California, Biden pointed out that the Chinese leader was a dictator who was upset when a balloon was shot down in February because he was unaware of the espionage.
“The reason Xi Jinping got very angry when I shot down this balloon that had two boxes full of spy gear is because he didn’t know they were there. That was the great shame of dictators when they didn’t know what.” “It happened,” Biden said.
The US President has indicated that “that (the spy team) should not be there”. “When he was shot down, he was very ashamed and denied having been there,” he added.
“Now we are in a situation where he (Xi) wants to be in a relationship again. Antony Blinken was there, he did a good job and it will take some time,” he said.
Biden’s remarks come after the foreign minister paid a visit to China, where he also met with Xi’s top foreign policy adviser Wang Yi and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang after weeks of tensions between the two powers.
Blinken arrived in Beijing on Sunday to defuse tensions between the two countries, mainly fueled by US support for Taiwan and Chinese military maneuvers around the island in response, as well as recent speculation of Chinese espionage attempts.
For his part, US President Joe Biden said Saturday he hopes to meet with Xi in the coming months, noting that Chinese leaders appear to be unaware of details about the Chinese hot-air balloon shot down in the US in February. “China has some legitimate troubles that have nothing to do with the United States,” he said.