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Biden's Off-Script Comment After Meeting with Xi Draws Fury from China

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Like the some says, two steps forward, two steps back.

After what several news accounts — like this one from Time — described as a “productive” meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco on Wednesday, Biden told reporters what he really thought about his negotiating partner.

“After today, would you still refer to President Xi as a dictator?” a CNN reporter asked. According to Time, the reporter was referring to a term Biden had used previously that had upset Chinese leaders.

“Well, look, he is,” Biden confirmed. “I mean he’s a dictator in the sense that here’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country based on a form of government totally different than ours.”

It’s possible that Biden realized he’d just put his foot into his mouth, as he cut off questions at that point, turning his back on reporters.

According to Politico, Biden had literally just finished listing a number of agreements to which he and Xi had agreed, including re-opening lines of communication between high-level military leaders in both countries and some steps aimed at curbing the production of fentanyl using chemicals produced in China.

They’d also agreed to further discussions on artificial intelligence.

Do you trust Biden to deal with the Chinese?

“Our meetings have always been candid and straightforward. We haven’t always agreed, but they’ve always been straightforward,” Biden said. “And today built on several months of groundwork we’ve laid over the past several months of high-level diplomacy between our teams.”

Then, Biden called Xi a dictator. Again.

“The last time Biden called Xi a dictator, at a June fundraiser in Northern California, Chinese officials called the remarks absurd and a provocation,” Politico wrote.

China’s foreign ministry condemned the remarks without making specific mention of the U.S. president, saying it “strongly opposes” them.

“This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters Thursday at a briefing, according to Reuters.

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“It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage U.S.-China relations, they are doomed to fail,” she added, although it was difficult to imagine whom she might have meant, given that it was Biden himself who both praised the progress of his talks with Xi and then called him a dictator. (Reuters noted that she refused to elaborate when asked.)

Reuters also noted that Xi was “elected” to a third term as president in March by a unanimous vote by all 3,000 members of what ti called “China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress.”

It also referred to Xi as “the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong” who had not only quashed most media criticism of the government but also successfully consolidated military power during his first two terms.

Biden called Xi a dictator in June, a comment Reuters said Chinese leaders had dismissed as “absurd and a provocation” but which didn’t prevent further diplomatic talks that eventually led up to the summit in San Francisco this week.


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George Upper is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Western Journal and was a weekly co-host of "WJ Live," powered by The Western Journal. He is currently a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. A former U.S. Army special operator, teacher and consultant, he is a lifetime member of the NRA and an active volunteer leader in his church. Born in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he has lived most of his life in central North Carolina.
George Upper, is the former editor-in-chief of The Western Journal and is now a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. He currently serves as the connections pastor at Awestruck Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former U.S. Army special operator, teacher, manager and consultant. Born in Massachusetts, he graduated from Foxborough High School before joining the Army and spending most of the next three years at Fort Bragg. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in English as well as a Master's in Business Administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife life only a short drive from his three children, their spouses and his grandchildren. He is a lifetime member of the NRA and in his spare time he shoots, reads a lot of Lawrence Block and John D. MacDonald, and watches Bruce Campbell movies. He is a fan of individual freedom, Tommy Bahama, fine-point G-2 pens and the Oxford comma.
Birthplace
Foxborough, Massachusetts
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Beta Gamma Sigma
Education
B.A., English, UNCG; M.A., English, UNCG; MBA, UNCG
Location
North Carolina
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Faith, Business, Leadership and Management, Military, Politics




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