Following the conclusion of their meeting in California, China on Thursday denounced as “extremely wrong” US President Joe Biden’s claim that Chinese leader Xi Jinping is a tyrant.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning responded to questions on Biden’s comments by saying, “This kind of speech is extremely wrong and is irresponsible political manipulation.” China is adamantly against it, Ning was cited by AFP. She said, “I need to emphasize that there are always some people trying to sow discord and wreck China-US relations, and this too will not succeed. These people always have ulterior motives.”
Mao wavered, responding, “I think whoever is trying to undermine and sow discord between China and the United States knows it,” when pressed to name the person she was referring to. This occurs only hours after Biden and Xi decided to resume military contacts between the two nations on Wednesday at their first meeting in a year, despite Biden deviating from plan and declaring that he still saw Xi as a “dictator.”
In the course of four hours of discussions meant to keep escalating tensions between the biggest economies in the world from degenerating into war, the leaders clasped hands and walked around a garden at a historic California home.
Along with their agreement to combat the manufacture of fentanyl, which is to blame for the fatal opioid misuse crisis in the US, Biden and Xi also expressed their “sympathies” with the American victims of the poison, which has wreaked havoc on communities all across the nation.
However, their differences persisted about the larger flashpoint of Taiwan, where the Chinese president told his US counterpart that reunification was “unstoppable” and that the island should cease being armed. The self-governing democracy is claimed by Beijing, which has not ruled out using force to take control of it.
Following the United States’ downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon in February of this year, the two presidents’ ties soured and they had not met in person since their discussions in Bali in November 2022.