The video captured Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s reaction after President Joe Biden reiterated his confidence that Chinese President Xi Jinping is a “dictator. “
Biden held a news conference on Wednesday after meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as well as separate face-to-face talks in San Francisco.
The meeting between Xi and Biden was seen as a step toward healing fractured relations between China and the United States after Beijing ended military contacts with Washington following former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stopover in Taiwan last August. Tensions rose further in February after the U. S. firing. shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon on the East Coast.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Biden was asked if he still supported the comment he made in June that Xi was a “dictator,” something China called “extremely absurd and irresponsible” and a “political provocation. “
“Look, it is,” Biden said Wednesday. He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a communist country founded on a completely different form of government than we do. “
A snippet of Biden’s remarks was shared online, with several social media users noting Blinken’s likely awkward reaction.
Ginger Gibson, editor-in-chief of NBC News in Washington, posted the video of Biden’s press conference on X, formerly Twitter, while urging others to “watch for Tony Blinken’s framing language when Biden says he believes Xi is a dictator. ” “I can hear him hold his breath. “
The X account of the conservative news site Citizen Free Press posted, “It looked like Blinken wanted to fall into a hole when Biden said Xi was a dictator. “
Christine Duhaime, a journalist and monetary crime expert, added: “Blinken’s reaction when Biden called President Xi a dictator is priceless. You can say he’s like Jesus, no, in his head. “
Blinken’s reaction when Biden called President Xi a dictator is priceless. You can say he’s like Jesus, no, in his head. https://t. co/dY81N1YF4w
China has officially responded to Biden’s latest comments about Xi.
The Chinese president reportedly told Biden on Wednesday that the U. S. Communist Party’s negative outlook was unfair, a U. S. official told reporters after the meeting.
China’s White House and Foreign Ministry were contacted for comment via email.
Blinken had in the past defended Biden after his previous “dictator” speech about the Chinese president, which came after the secretary of state’s stopover in China to meet with Xi.
“The president speaks frankly, speaks directly, speaks obviously and speaks on behalf of all of us,” Blinken told CBS’s “Face the Nation” in June.
Biden made the past “dictator” comment about Xi on one occasion in California while talking about when the U. S. shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon last year.
“The explanation why Xi Jinping was so disappointed when I shot down that balloon with two wagons full of spy equipment is that I didn’t know it was there,” Biden said. “It’s the biggest shame for dictators, when they didn’t know what was going on. “”.
Xi won his third term as president in March after China’s National People’s Congress voted unanimously for him in a no-candidate election.
The White House said Biden and Xi held “frank and constructive” discussions on a variety of issues, and Biden also raised considerations about China’s “human rights violations,” adding that in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, the meeting was held.
Xi told reporters after the assembly that as long as the United States and China “respect each other, coexist in peace and pursue mutually beneficial cooperation, they will be fully capable of overcoming their differences and finding the right path for the two wonderful countries to achieve. ” “. “with another. “
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News journalist founded in London, UK. It focuses on U. S. politics, domestic politics, and the courts. He joined Newsweek in February 2018 after spending several years working at the International Business Times UK, where he focused on crime. policy and existing issues. Prior to that, he worked as a freelancer after graduating from the University of Sunderland in 2010. Languages: English.
You can reach Ewan by emailing e. palmer@newsweek. com.