China criticized Joe Biden for calling Xi Jinping a dictator | After the meeting of the presidents of China and the United States in San Francisco

2023-11-17 05:01:00

China condemned that US President Joe Biden called his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, a dictator after the meeting the two held in San Francisco this Wednesday. Biden thus responded to a journalist who asked him if he still considered Xi to be a dictator, to which the president replied: “Well, look, he is.” Last June, Biden had described Xi that way for the first time, which caused enormous discomfort in the Asian giant.

The spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, indicated that the US president’s words are “extremely erroneous and constitute an irresponsible political act.” However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not include in its routine transcript of the daily press conference any mention of the statements of either Biden or Mao, of which there are no traces on the Asian country’s social networks either.

Mao noted that dialogue and cooperation are “the only correct options” for China and the United States in their bilateral relationship. Biden’s statements muddied Xi’s agenda in San Francisco, where she is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) this week and where she advocates building bridges with the North American country.

During a dinner with American businessmen in the Californian city attended by, among others, Elon Musk of Tesla and Tim Cook of Apple, Xi declared: “We must build more bridges and pave more roads for people-to-people interaction. “We should not raise barriers.” Xi said that the United States should not see China as its main competitor and assured that his country is ready to be “a partner and a friend” of the American country based on the fundamental principles of respect and peaceful coexistence.

The Chinese leader assured that his country “is happy to see a confident, open, constantly growing and prosperous United States,” although he added that he hopes that Washington “in turn welcomes a peaceful, stable and prosperous China.” Xi recommended during his speech that the North American country “not bet against China” or “interfere in its internal affairs.”

Xi used his speech to convey his “deep solidarity” with the American people for the suffering inflicted by the consumption and abuse of fentanyl, one of the topics he discussed in his meeting with Biden. The meeting resulted in an agreement for China to control the departure from its territory of chemicals that Mexican drug cartels use to manufacture fentanyl, according to the White House.

Among the attendees, who paid up to $40,000 for each table of eight people, were tycoons and CEOs such as the aforementioned Musk and Cook; Jane Fraser, representing Citigroup; Darren Woods, from ExxonMobil, or Satya Nadella, from Microsoft.