Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for talks in San Francisco. Beijing and Washington described the conversation between the leaders as “productive” and important. After the summit, Biden called his Chinese counterpart a “dictator.”
During the summit between Biden and Xi, the leaders agreed to resume military-to-military communications once China appoints a new defense minister. The former Chinese defense minister had not spoken with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin because as he was under sanctions by Washington. The leaders also agreed to attempt to curb fentanyl trafficking.
Biden described the talks as “some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had.” He added that Xi will be “willing to pick up the phone” in the future. A press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the summit was “positive, comprehensive and constructive. It has charted the course for improving and developing China-US relations.” It added, “San Francisco should be a new starting point for stabilizing China-US relations.”
Xi told Biden that there are two paths forward for the Washington-Beijing relationship. According to the Foreign Ministry, “Xi noted that China and the US are faced with two options in the era of global transformations unseen in a century:” The press release continues, “One is to enhance solidarity and cooperation and join hands to meet global challenges and promote global security and prosperity; and the other is to cling to the zero-sum mentality, provoke rivalry and confrontation, and drive the world toward turmoil and division.”
The release added, “The two choices point to two different directions that will decide the future of humanity and Planet Earth.” Both Biden and Xi acknowledged that the US-Chinese relationship is the most important on the planet.
While Biden focused on increasing communications and curbing fentanyl trafficking, Xi stressed to the American president the importance of the Taiwan issue. In the Foreign Ministry release, Xi explained “China’s principled position on the Taiwan question. [Xi] pointed out that the Taiwan question remains the most important and most sensitive issue in China-US relations. The US side should take real actions to honor its commitment of not supporting ‘Taiwan independence’, stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification. China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable.”
Since taking office, Biden has increased US ties with Taiwan. Biden has deployed US soldiers to the island and increased weapons sales to Taipei.
In an overture to show Beijing’s commitment to a new relationship moving forward, Xi said China would send more pandas to the US. Beijing views the Giant Panda as China’s national symbol and works to ensure Pandas in captivity are healthy. Xi said the Pandas will “deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples.”
In a press conference after the summit, Biden slammed the Chinese president as a “dictator.” In response to a reporter asking the president if he thought his Chinese counterpart was a dictator, Biden said of Xi, “I mean, he’s a dictator in the sense that he is a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that is based on a form of government totally different than ours.” He continued, “Anyway, we made progress.” Video of Secretary of State Antony Blinken shows America’s top diplomat wincing as Biden made the blunder.
Beijing said that the description of Xi as a dictator was incorrect, but attempted to downplay the incident. Mao Ning, a Chinese government spokeswoman, said China “strongly opposes” the “dictator” accusation. She added, “It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage US-China relations, they are doomed to fail.”
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Joe Biden is a mean-spirited moron. Is he suffering from dementia? Maybe, but he has always been a mean-spirited moron. That’s the key point to understand.
Now, who is the intelligent and who is the dumb…?!
This is not Joe Biden’s first diplomatic blunder and probably not the last. He talks than he thinks.
Obama warned about Joe’s ability to “f*ck things up”. Give him time. More to come. When he talks, he squints at the teleprompter. When he muses, he goes off rails.
People who support maintaining the status quo often obsess on whether a political candidate is competent. Hitler and Reagan were competent, so what? Biden’s dementia is not his biggest problem by far. His pro-establishment attitude and his insane war mongering are far more important.
The only post WW2 dictator of China was Mao. All others who tried ended badly.
That’s US diplomacy alright… going as low as you can get…!
Diplomacy really is an art form – built on carefully cultivated words, actions, considerations, tactics, and perceptions.
There is that brilliant quote of disputed origin – “A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a tactful way that you’ll look forward with pleasure to making the trip.”
There does not seem to be a crafty or elegant strand anywhere in US foreign policy DNA, these days.
President Biden seems like one of those politicians who makes an embarassing, honest, off-the-cuff comment not knowing the microphone is still on – except that he knows the microphone is still on.
“Honest” and “Joe Biden” do not belong in the same sentence, fwiw.
Hah, true. I meant ‘honest’ in the objective sense, in the same ‘broken clock right twice a day’ fashion.
Please do not refer to Joe as president, in caps. He is not acting like a President.
I do try to use titles (for political figures) or full names (for same, or other Commenters) as a matter of formality.
A good President and a bad President are still Presidents, so, for sake of consistency and fairness I am bound to apply titles as warranted, not as deserved.
Biden described the talks as “some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had.”
“oh by the way Xi is a dictator”
really, why didn’t you call him that to his face.
He added that Xi will be “willing to pick up the phone” in the future.
right. certainly he will not feel insulted when he learns what you said behind his back.
It’s almost as if he’s going to be 81 in a few days.
China is actively developing whole process democracy. What that means can be studied in depth yet the result will be a snap shot of a rapidly unfolding project occurring in times of rapid change that has not happened on a hundred years, and perhaps never before so rapid.
So what does whole process mean? In a nutshell, Even though Chinese leadership understands impending human extinction from pollution and climate change, the over arching policy need is further advancement of Chinese science and technology to resist US dominance, This requires some as yet unknown method for harvesting the intelligence of 1.4 billion highly educated and happy people who feel secure in their strong and growing culture.
Sadly, the US has chosen the path of central planning by oligarchs funded by austerity for the masses.
I’ve heard people in China say that they think their country is more democratic than the U.S. (wouldn’t be hard to do, considering that the U.S. isn’t a democracy). Their reasoning is that if the people demand something, there’s only one party, so they can’t play the Kabuki theater they do in the U.S. by blaming the other party, when of course neither works for the people. Just a thought, but a very interesting one.
You hit the nail on the head. As near as I can tell the US is buried in all kinds of diversionary rights. One almost needs to go to college in order to identify all the various rights.
China on the other hand is simply putting people first, Chinese brought themselves out of poverty by the hundreds of millions in 25 – 50 years. President Xi says the first human right is the right to life.
Our country, the U.S., was founded as a Republic. The only concession to democracy was the House of Representatives.
Yeah, we learned that in grade school. But what people mean when they say “democratic” or “democracy” doesn’t mean a literal democracy, which hasn’t existed in any large society since ancient Greece that I know of. They mean that we get to elect people into political office who make or sometimes repeal laws. We know that’s a republic, not a democracy, but you’re nitpicking here considering how the word is commonly used.
Your country? Lol.
Your country is Russia. Stop being a phony.
Based on a definition that another country’s government is based on a different economic/political system than ours, that country’s leader is a dictator.
Anyone know if Biden was drooling when he vomited that one up?
And the U.S. isn’t a democracy anyway, as shown by the 2014 Princeton study, so calling the leader of another country a name like that is also hypocritical.
Communism and Capitalism do business the same way. Business. The difference is who owns the productive enterprises. Under each system, they have to produce goods, sell the goods, etc. Make money. Or everything grinds to a halt.
China has been more capitalist than communist for decades. Just because it calls itself communist doesn’t make it so.
For a very good explanation of the differences or lack thereof, see this: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechnetwork4.html
Another genius.
The People’s Republic of China is a one-party state ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
No sh*t, really? Wow, you’re so smart! How in the world did you figure that out?
Seriously, learn to comprehend what you’re reading, specifically my second sentence.
And BTW, that one-party state that you’re so happy to insult and propagandize against is actually far more democratic than the U.S., because its government is far more responsive to what the people want.
Nah man, you are the real smart one here stating that the communist country is not necessarily communist.
Now, That’s comprehension.
You are a true Genius.
You obviously don’t know that “communist” means. China is mainly a capitalist country, with some aspects of communism. There are a lot of privately owned companies in China, that’s not communism.
Seriously? No mention of APEC, which is the reason for this conference? I guess leaders of China and the U.S. meeting to decide how to increase global trade so they can further destroy the Earth is of no concern to this writer.
America has no President: FJB!
Creepy Joe the back biter.
That’s like the guy who speaks to the cops all politely then brags to his friends at home, he called them pigs.
He has to displace his boiling anger and overtly visible impotence rekindled everyday by Netanyahu onto some one by sounding rude and arrogant .
Deeper significance of “Dictator” comment: it indicates to Xi the bad faith of the meeting from Biden’s team.
Yeah, I don’t know how any country could trust the U.S. at this point. Probably should never have trusted it because it was founded on genocide, land theft, and slavery, but its lack of credibility just gets worse as time goes on (not that that’s what time really does, just an expression).
Biden calling Xi a dictator will hurt the U.S. Because countries see how U.S. can stab you in the back before you even leave the table(or the country).
If countries couldn’t see that decades ago, they’ll never see it. Biden childishly calling Xi names is nothing compared to some of the stuff the U.S. does, like lying to the Soviet Union then Russia that it wouldn’t expand NATO east of a unified Germany.
Diplomatically awkward no doubt, but is he wrong?