U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had just made an effort to set U.S.-China relations on a more even keel, at least on the crucial issue of Taiwan, when President Joe Biden pretty much spoiled the entire effort yesterday by calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator.” Promptly, Chinese official sources called the remark “extremely absurd” and “an open political provocation,” and were left with the question of whether words from Washington will be matched by deeds.
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it, was he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said at a fundraiser in California according to Reuters. “That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course,” Biden added. (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/06/20/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-reception/)
