BEIJING, 21 Jun: China on Wednesday called comments by U.S. President Joe Biden referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a dictator \u201cextremely absurd and irresponsible,\u201d as a new rift threatened to upset tentative efforts to stabilize the relationship between the two countries.
\nThe clash of words comes just over a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a visit to Beijing that sought to break the ice in a relationship that has hit a historical low. While both sides saw those talks as productive, they did not result in any significant breakthroughs beyond an agreement to return to a broad agenda for cooper-ation and competition.
\nBiden, at the fundraiser on Tuesday night, said Xi was embarrassed over recent tensions surroun-ding a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by the Air Force over the East Coast.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn\u2019t know what happened,\u201d Biden said.
\nForeign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, responding to a question about Biden\u2019s remarks, said the comments at a fundraiser in California \u201cgo totally against facts and seriously violate diplomatic protocol, and severely infringe on China\u2019s political dignity.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is a blatant political provocation. China expre-sses strong dissatisfaction and opposition,\u201d Mao said at a daily briefing.
\n\u201cThe U.S. remarks are extremely absurd and irresponsible,\u201d Mao said.
\nMao reiterated China\u2019s contention that the balloon was for meteorological res-earch and had been accid-entally blown off course.
\n\u201cThe U.S. should have handled it in a calm and profe-ssional manner,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, the U.S. distorted facts and used forces to hype up the incident, fully revealing its nature of bullying and hegemony.\u201d
\nBiden has previously used the term dictator, along with war criminal, to refer to Russian President Vladimir Putin over his country\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
\nWhile Xi heads a country formally named the People\u2019s Republic of China, he faces no limits on his terms as head of state, commander of the military and leader of the ruling Communist Party, which brooks no challenges to its authority.
\nBlinken\u2019s visit, during which he met with Xi, was aimed at easing tensions between the two superpowers.
\nThe trip was originally scheduled for February but was put on hold after the balloon incident. While the visit marked a return to high-level contacts between the sides, China continues to refuse talks between their militaries.
\nIn recent days, the U.S. says Chinese warplanes and naval ships have maneuvered in ways that threaten their U.S. counterparts in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, despite agreements between them on protocols for avoiding such incidents.
\nDuring Blinken\u2019s visit, China reiterated its strong objections to U.S. support for the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory. The U.S. has also sought to block China\u2019s access to cutting-edge computer chip manufac-turing technology that could be used for military purposes and accused Beijing of stealing American intellec-tual property.
\nIn his comments at the fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign, Biden said he believed the balloon incident had caught Xi unaware.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn\u2019t know what happened. That wasn\u2019t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States. And he didn\u2019t know about it,\u201d Biden said. \u201cWhen it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.\u201d
\nDespite their sharp political divide, the countries continue to have deep economic and cultural links. Bilateral trade passed $690 billion last year and an estimated 300,000 Chinese are believed to be studying in the U.S., shoring up American institutions that have come under financial pressure.
\nAfter meeting with Xi on Monday, Blinken acknowl-edged entrenched differe-nces. \u201cWe have no illusions about the challenges of managing this relationship. There are many issues on which we profoundly, even vehemently, disagree,\u201d he said.
\nXi sounded a similar note but suggested the rivalry could be overcome.
\n\u201cThe competition among major countries is not in line with the trend of the times and cannot solve the problems of the United States itself and the challenges facing the world,\u201d he told Blinken. \u201cChina respects the interests of the United States and will not challenge or supplant the United States. Similarly, the United States should also respect China and not harm its legitimate rights and interests.\u201d (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING, 21 Jun: China on Wednesday called comments by U.S. President Joe Biden referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a dictator \u201cextremely absurd and irresponsible,\u201d as a new rift threatened to upset tentative efforts to stabilize the relationship between the two countries. The clash of words comes just over a day after Secretary of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-218869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}