Secretary of State Antony Blinken stood by earlier comments from President Joe Biden calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping a dictator, saying “the president speaks for all of us.”
Biden earlier referred to Xi as a “dictator” during a fundraiser event in California, just a day after Blinken reported having had a “robust conversation” with the Chinese Communist Party head in Beijing.
The comment drew the ire of Chinese officials, who called it a “political provocation.” Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Biden’s statement “seriously violated China’s political dignity.”
Blinken said during a June 25 appearance on “State of the Union” that he stands by the president’s comment, coming after Biden himself predicted that the comment would have no real effect on relations with China.
CNN anchor Dana Bash discussed the comments with Blinken.
“You just went to Beijing last week. It was an attempt to smooth frayed relations with China,” Bash said. “Two days later, President Biden calls Xi Jinping a ‘dictator,’ which angered China so much that they issued an official diplomatic reprimand to the U.S. ambassador. Was the president wrong to call Xi Jinping a dictator?”
“It’s very clear that when it comes to to China, we are going to do and say things that they don’t like, they are going to do and say things that we don’t like,” Blinken replied. “If you look at what comes out of the Chinese Foreign Ministry every day about the United States, you’d hear plenty of that.”
Blinken also took the opportunity to defend his trip to China, which drew some criticism from Republicans.
“The purpose of my trip at the president’s instruction was to try to bring a little bit more stability to the relationship, to demonstrate that we’re committed to managing it responsibly, … and to be able to deal very directly with our differences,” he said.
“There’s no secret about about those differences. There’s no secret about concerns we have about democracy about human rights, about some of the actions that China is taking around the world.”
By Joseph Lord
