President Joe Biden reiterated his view on Wednesday that Chinese President Xi Jinping functioned as an effective dictator, a statement likely to have considerable impact in Beijing following their direct summit talks.
After engaging in four hours of discussions with Xi in San Francisco, Biden conducted a press conference on his own. Towards the end, he was questioned about his previous characterization of Xi as a dictator made in June.
Biden maintained, “Look, he is. He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours.”
In March, Xi secured a third term as president with a unanimous vote from China’s National People’s Congress. Following a decade of consolidating power, Xi is regarded as the most influential Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, as he has been stifling media freedoms and asserting control over policy-making and the military.
Despite the lack of immediate response from the Chinese delegation, who were in the U.S. for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, hundreds of Beijing critics marched through San Francisco, advocating for “free Tibet” and “free Hong Kong.”
China previously dismissed Biden’s similar reference to Xi as a dictator in June, deeming the remarks absurd and provocative. However, the two sides still engaged in extensive discussions, leading to the meeting on Wednesday aimed at improving strained relations.
Biden’s negative view of the Communist Party was a key topic during the meeting. According to a U.S. official, Xi expressed his belief that the negative perceptions of the Communist Party in the United States were unjust.
(By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jeff Mason; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons and Stephen Coates)
