The US president said on Tuesday that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, belongs to the category of “dictators”, at a reception in California with donors from the Democratic Party and in the presence of journalists.
Referring to a recent episode in which the United States destroyed a Chinese balloon they claimed was spying on American soil, Joe Biden said that “the reason why [o Presidente chinês] he was so upset” when he was shot down “that balloon full of spy equipment is because he didn’t know what [o dispositivo] I was there.”
“It’s very embarrassing for dictators when they don’t know what happened,” he continued, adding: “When [o balão] was shot down he was very embarrassed and even denied that [o aparelho] they were there”.
“And by the way, I promise you not to worry about China… China has real economic problems,” said the 80-year-old Democrat, who is running for re-election.
Still on the subject of Xi Jinping, Joe Biden said: “We are at a point where he wants to restore a relationship.”
Recalling that the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, had just returned from China, the US president considered that the Secretary of State had done a “good job”, but explained that “it will take time” to resolve the very tense relationship between the two great powers.
The Sino-US rivalry turned into a diplomatic crisis with this balloon episode in February.
It is not the first time that Joe Biden has made notable statements at fundraising receptions, small-scale events in which cameras, microphones and cameras are excluded, but during which the journalists present can nevertheless listen to the introductory remarks of the president and transcribe to them.
It was at such an event, in October 2022, for example, that Joe Biden spoke of the risk of a nuclear “apocalypse” unleashed by Russia.
Source: TSF
