After President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week in San Francisco, a reporter asked Biden if he would continue to refer to Xi as a dictator. Biden responded, “Well look he is. I mean, he’s a dictator in the sense that he is a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visibly disappointed by the response from Biden, with Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning telling reporters, “This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation.” Mao continued to say, “It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage U.S.-China relations, they are doomed to fail.”
Representative Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) does not view the meeting between Biden and Xi as a positive diplomatic development to repair strained relations with China, saying on Fox News, “This meeting has come at a great cost. We have taken our foot off the gas in terms of sanctions, defensive actions in order for the president to just sit down with Xi. So even if they come up with some working group on fentanyl, which, listen, I hope will be successful, it has come at a cost, and for some reason we pay cash up front to the Chinese but their check is always in the mail.”
Gallagher stated that Xi has made promises to improve relations in the past, but points out those promises never come to fruition. “With Kerry and Yellen taking the lead, we are seeing a reversion to the Obama-era foreign policy on China. Remember Xi Jinping stood in the Rose Garden and promised, you know, to lessen cyber intrusions in America as well as reduce the militarization of the South China Sea, and then promptly went and increased his activity on both of those fronts.” Gallagher warns those who are hopeful for peace between the United States and China, “Just goes to show we have to be very careful and have a clear eye view of who we are dealing with in terms of this Marxist-Leninist organization that is the Chinese Communist Party.”
