16-11-2023 (SAN FRANCISCO) President Biden, following a lengthy meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in San Francisco, once again referred to his counterpart as a “dictator.” The off-the-cuff remark, made during a press conference, is likely to add tension to the already strained relations between the United States and China.
“He’s a dictator in the sense of he’s a guy who runs a country, a communist country,” Biden told reporters, listing perceived agreements made during the meeting. The summit addressed various issues, including the resumption of military-to-military communication, tackling the influx of fentanyl into the U.S., discussing the upcoming Taiwanese elections, artificial intelligence, and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The leaders spent approximately four hours in discussions, which included a private lunch and a walk around the grounds of the Filoli estate. This meeting marked the second instance this year where Biden referred to Xi as a dictator.
In June, during a fundraiser in the San Francisco area, Biden had characterized Xi as a dictator, citing an incident where a Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the U.S. military in February. Biden explained, “The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment is he didn’t know it was there. No, I’m serious. That was the great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened,” addressing donors at the time.
