China sharply criticizes Joe Biden's description of Xi Jinping as a "dictator"
China has sharply criticized US President Joe Biden's description of head of state Xi Jinping as a "dictator" immediately after a summit meeting in the US state of California. This kind of language is "extremely wrong and is irresponsible political manipulation", said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Thursday in Beijing when asked about Biden's statement. China "firmly" rejects them.
There are always "some people with ulterior motives who try to sow discord and destroy relations between China and the USA", the spokesperson continued. This would not succeed. When asked who she meant, Mao said: "I think whoever is trying to undermine China-US relations and sow discord knows it."
Xi and Biden had previously met for the first time in a year amid bilateral tensions in San Francisco. Among other things, they agreed to resume military communication between their countries' armed forces.
After his meeting with Xi, Biden told journalists that he still considered the Chinese president to be a "dictator" - "in the sense that he rules a communist country based on a form of government that is completely different from ours".
Biden had already equated Xi with "dictators" in June. Beijing condemned this at the time as an "open political provocation".
Source: www.ntv.de
