These statements come as Secretary of State Antony Blinken has completed a visit to Beijing, the first by an American diplomat in nearly five years.
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The signs of appeasement did not last long. Barely the American Secretary of State returned from an encouraging trip to Beijing, the first of a head of American diplomacy in nearly five years, the American President Joe Biden related his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to a “dictator”.
During a reception in California with Democratic Party donors on Tuesday, June 20, the president referred to a recent episode in which the United States destroyed a Chinese balloon which they said was spying on their territory.
“The reason why [le président chinois] got so pissed off when i shot down that balloon full of spy gear is he didn’t know [que cet engin] was there”, did he declare. “It’s very embarrassing for dictators when they don’t know what happened.”
Criticisms of Chinese policy in Asia-Pacific
Joe Biden explained that he “would take time” to ease the very tense relationship between the two great powers. “And by the way, I promise you, don’t worry about China. (…) China is in real economic trouble,” said the 80-year-old Democrat, campaigning for re-election.
The US president mentioned another sticking point with China: the summit at which the leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States in May addressed thinly veiled criticism of the policy of Beijing in Asia-Pacific, which they see as a source of instability.
The four countries “work hand in hand in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean”said Joe Biden, who said that this show of unity between the four countries was what had “really contracted” the Chinese president.