Biden Offends China Again With 'Dictator' Swipe

President Joe Biden raised eyebrows on Wednesday when he called Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a "dictator," a comment that may jeopardize the fragile achievements of their long-awaited summit.

At a press conference after the talks, Biden said he would still consider Xi a dictator because of the nature of China's authoritarian system. It was the second time this year that the U.S. president had deployed the unflattering descriptor—a departure from the smiles and warm handshake the two had exchanged just hours earlier.

The meeting, which took place on the margins of the APEC leaders' forum in San Francisco, was for months billed as a chance for the world's two most powerful countries to partially reset a relationship that had grown rancorous from divisions over trade, human rights, espionage, Taiwan and a bevy of other issues.

"Well, look. He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who rules a country that is a communist country, that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," Biden said.

A video showed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was sitting on the front row during the presser, becoming visibly uncomfortable as Biden made the off-the-cuff remark.

At a regular press conference in Beijing on Thursday, Mao Ning, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said China "strongly opposes" the remarks, but did not mention Biden by name.

"This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation," she said, before criticizing "people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage China-U.S. relations."

Biden has picked up a reputation for rhetorical gaffes over the years, and his latest comment appeared to be poorly received in Beijing, whose leaders are particularly sensitive to public criticism and diplomatic protocol.

At a June fundraiser, while recalling his order to shoot down China's spy balloon after it had traversed the continental United States earlier this year, Biden said: "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, is he didn't know it was there."

"I'm serious. That was the great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn't know what happened," he said.

Mao, the spokesperson, said the comments were "extremely ridiculous and irresponsible. They seriously violate basic facts, diplomatic protocol and China's political dignity."

On both occasions, however, Mao's public responses were omitted from the ministry's official transcript and went uncovered by Chinese state media, presumably because they referred to a serious slight on the Chinese Communist Party's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

Biden's latest use of the controversial label could cast a pall on the relative thawing effect Xi's visit is expected to have on U.S.-China relations, coming after a revolving door of official trips to Beijing by Biden administration officials, who paved the way for Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's own visit to Washington late last month.

Biden and Xi agreed to reestablish military-to-military lines of communication, which Biden had previously said would top the agenda. China cut talks after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) visit to Taiwan in August 2022.

The resumption of defense dialogue will help prevent potential miscalculations and miscommunications from turning deadly in hotspots such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, U.S. officials have said.

Both militaries often operate in close proximity in these area, with the last two years seeing a spike in aggressive maneuvering by Chinese fighter jets and vessels as they try to push American forces out of the region.