WOODSIDE: US President Joe Biden said after a summit with Xi Jinping on Wednesday that he still considers the Chinese president a “dictator”, after he sparked fury from Beijing by making the comparison earlier this year.

“Well look he is, I mean he’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who’s running a country, a Communist country, that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours,” Biden said at the end of a news conference when a reporter asked if he would still use the term to describe Xi.

In its reaction, China condemned Biden’s description of Xi Jinping as a dictator as “extremely wrong”, after the two leaders wrapped up a summit in California.

Asked about Biden’s remarks, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said: “This kind of speech is extremely wrong and is irresponsible political manipulation. China firmly opposes it.”

She added: “I need to point out that there are always some people with ulterior motives attempting to sow discord and wreck China-US relations, and this too will not succeed.” Asked to clarify who she was referring to, Mao demurred, saying: “I think whoever is trying to undermine and sow discord between Chi­na and the United States knows it.”

Xi appeared to brush off the comment, telling an audience hours later that growing US-China ties were vital to both countries. “I believe that once the door to China-US relations is opened, it will not be closed again,” he said. “China is ready to be a partner and friend of the United States.”

Earlier, President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed at their summit to restore military communications between the two countries. The leaders shook hands and strolled around a garden at a historic California estate during four-hour talks aimed at preventing growing tensions between the world’s largest economies from spiraling into conflict.

They also agreed that China would crack down on the production of ingredients for fentanyl, responsible for a deadly epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States, with Xi saying he “sympathizes” with US victims of the deadly drug, which has ravaged communities across the country.

But Xi and Biden remained far apart on the wider flashpoint of Taiwan, with the Chinese president telling his US counterpart to stop arming the island and that reunification was “unstoppable”. Beijing claims sovereignty over the self-ruling democracy and has not ruled out seizing it by force.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2023