“Totally irresponsible” and contrary to “diplomatic etiquette”: China deplored Thursday the remarks of American President Joe Biden, who had estimated that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was encountering “enormous problems”, in particular at the economic level.
“Find me a single world leader willing to swap places with Xi Jinping…I can’t find one,” Trump told US television channel PBS on Wednesday.
“This man has huge problems”, in particular “an economy that does not work very well”, he judged, noting however that the Chinese leader “also had a lot of potential”.
This new verbal jousting comes after the destruction by the American army on Saturday of a Chinese balloon flying over the United States and which, according to Washington, was a spy device.
Despite a warming of relations after a Xi-Biden meeting in November at the G20 summit, the affair of this aerostat prompted the head of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, to cancel an imminent visit planned to Beijing.
The destruction of the balloon was strongly denounced by China, which had previously apologized and assured that it was a simple civil aerostat having deviated from its trajectory.
On Wednesday, Joe Biden’s spokeswoman accused Beijing of having a “fleet of balloons intended for spy operations” on five continents.
During a PBS interview the same day, Mr. Biden defended the decision to knock the ball down. He also assured that the United States “does not seek conflict” with China.
“War of opinion”
On the Ukrainian file, Joe Biden felt that, contrary to what “everyone assumed” at the start of the Russian invasion, Beijing was not “fully” committed behind Moscow.
A reservation, according to him, linked to Xi Jinping’s desire not to suffer the same fate as Russia, which has in particular been subject to harsh economic sanctions imposed by the West.
“I called him this summer to tell him, ‘It’s not a threat, just an observation: look at what happened to Russia,'” Joe Biden told the television channel.
The evocation by the tenant of the White House of the content of a private conversation with the leader of the Chinese Communist Party has caused dissatisfaction in Beijing.
“These words […] are totally irresponsible and violate the basic rules of diplomatic etiquette,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, reacted on Thursday.
“China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition,” she said at a regular press conference.
Asked again about the balloon affair, Mao Ning also repeated that it was a civilian machine.
“The United States says that this balloon was part of a so-called fleet […] What is likely is that these comments are part of a war of opinion against China,” she said.
The case had unleashed the passions of the American political class and media.
“The international community knows very well who is the world champion in espionage and surveillance,” she concluded with reference to Washington.
Call refused
China also confirmed on Thursday that it had refused a phone call between US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe following the destruction of the balloon.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Defense justified this refusal by the American initiative to shoot down the aerostat, an “irresponsible” act which did “not create a climate conducive to dialogue”.
However, the two powers seem to want to avoid any further escalation.
“China is keeping an open attitude towards a visit by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen,” China’s Commerce Ministry said on Thursday, after Yellen said he hoped to be able to visit the country. Asian country.
During the G20 summit, Xi Jinping also had little taste for the supposed leak to the press of the details of an interview with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Going to tell the newspapers what we said during our conversation is not appropriate,” said the Chinese president in a cordial but firm tone to Mr. Trudeau.