Advertisement
Joe Biden defends his calling China’s Xi Jinping a dictator as India’s Narendra Modi gets state visit
- American president dismisses ‘any real consequence’ to critical remarks and says ‘common democratic character’ unites Washington and New Delhi
- Show of US-India partnership accompanied by slew of agreements spanning semiconductors, critical minerals, defence and WTO
Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
99+
Khushboo Razdanin Washington
US President Joe Biden defended his recent description of Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” on Thursday during a joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose track record on human rights and press freedom has made some in Biden’s Democratic Party uneasy.
Advertisement
Biden said the “idea of my choosing and avoiding saying what I think is the facts with regard to [our] relationship with India, with China, is not something I’m going to change very much”.
The American president said pointed public comments about the Chinese leader have not undermined progress made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken following a recent meeting with Xi and other senior Chinese officials in Beijing.
Biden said Blinken had “had a great trip to China”, adding that he himself expected to meet Xi “sometime in the future, the near term”.
Biden believed his remarks had not “had any real consequence”, he continued, and described a perceived collapse of US relations with China as “hysteria”.
Advertisement
“We had an incident that caused some confusion,” Biden said, referring to the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over American territory in February.
Advertisement