Global Courant
BEIJING — China on Wednesday cited comments by President Joe Biden describing Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a dictator who was “utterly absurd and irresponsible.”
The new battle of words comes just over a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken called off a visit to Beijing to break the ice in a relationship that has reached an all-time low.
State Department spokesman Mao Ning said Biden’s comments at a fundraiser in California “are totally contrary to the facts and gravely violate diplomatic protocol, and gravely infringe on China’s political dignity.”
“It is a blatant political provocation. China expresses strong dissatisfaction and opposition,” Mao said at a daily briefing.
“The US comments are extremely absurd and irresponsible,” Mao said.
Blinken’s visit, during which he met Xi, was intended to ease tensions between the two superpowers, but proved to have failed to deliver solid results.
Biden said during the fundraiser Tuesday evening local time that Xi was embarrassed by the recent tensions surrounding a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down by the Air Force over the East Coast.
“That is a great shame for dictators. When they didn’t know what was happening,” Biden said.
Mao echoed China’s claim that the balloon was for meteorological research and was accidentally blown off course.
“The US should have handled it in a calm and professional manner,” she said. “However, the US distorted the facts and used powers to blow up the incident, fully revealing the nature of bullying and hegemony.”
Blinken’s visit was originally scheduled for February, but was postponed after the balloon incident. Although it marked a return to high-level contacts between the parties, China continues to refuse talks between their armies.
In recent days, the US has maneuvered Chinese warplanes and naval vessels in threatening ways towards their US counterparts in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, despite mutual agreements on protocols to prevent such incidents.
During Blinken’s visit, China reiterated its strong objections to US support for Taiwan’s self-governing island democracy, which Beijing claims as its own territory. The US has also tried to block Beijing’s access to advanced computer chip manufacturing technology that could be used for military purposes, accusing China of stealing US intellectual property.
After meeting with Xi on Monday, Blinken acknowledged deep-seated differences. “We are under no illusions about the challenges of managing this relationship. There are many issues on which we deeply, even vehemently, disagree,” he said.
