Any sarcasm aside, Blinken acknowledged the tension between the two nations.
“But look, as I said before, it’s not exactly a secret that we have a very different system from China’s. The president always speaks very clearly, very directly, and he speaks for everyone,” he said.
Biden’s remarks on Nov. 15 followed a meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, aimed at calming fears over the U.S. and China drifting toward military conflict in the Indo-Pacific.
Doubling down on his characterization of Xi earlier this year, Biden told reporters that “he’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country.”
The next day, China’s foreign ministry denounced the president’s remark: “This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Thursday, according to Reuters.
