White House still hopes for improved China ties despite ‘dictators’ jab
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China slammed Mr Biden’s remarks equating Chinese leader Xi Jinping with “dictators”.
PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON - The White House said on Wednesday it had every expectation that the top US diplomat’s recent trip to Beijing will lead to better relations, even after President Joe Biden compared China’s leader to embarrassed “dictators”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made some progress during a long-awaited trip to China, a senior administration official said on Wednesday. “We have every expectation of building on that progress,” the official said.
Mr Blinken’s visit, which concluded on Monday, was meant to re-establish lines of communication as tensions simmer between the two global powers over Taiwan and an incident in February involving a Chinese balloon, which Washington believes was spying on the United States.
China on Wednesday slammed Mr Biden’s remarks equating President Xi Jinping with “dictators”. Beijing called that statement, made by Mr Biden on Tuesday at a fund-raiser in California, “an open political provocation”.
The White House afterwards sought to smooth tensions.
“It should come as no surprise that the President speaks candidly about China and the differences that we have – we are certainly not alone in that,” the official said later on Wednesday. “The President believes that diplomacy, including that undertaken by Secretary Blinken, is the responsible way to manage tensions.”
Tuesday was not the first time Mr Biden has made significant, even provocative, statements at fund-raising receptions – usually small-scale events at which cameras and recordings are forbidden but where journalists may listen to and transcribe the president’s opening remarks.
At one such event in October 2022, Mr Biden spoke of the threat of nuclear “Armageddon” from Russia. AFP
