China is accusing President Biden of engaging in “political provocation” after what the commander in chief said about Xi Jinping on Tuesday while attending a fundraiser in California.
Discussing the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the U.S., including hovering over sensitive U.S. military sites, Biden said his Chinese counterpart was embarrassed that the balloon was blown off course into U.S. airspace.
"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 in it was he didn't know it was there," Biden said, going on to call President Xi a “dictator.”
"No, I’m serious. That's a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn't know what happened,” Biden continued. “That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States and he didn’t know about it. When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed and he denied it was even there.”
He also told the group that in one sense, people shouldn’t worry about China because the country “has real economic difficulties.”
Those remarks, which came shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in China to smooth over relations between the two countries, did not sit well with Beijing.
According to Reuters, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson called them "extremely absurd" and "irresponsible."
Expressing China's strong dissatisfaction, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Biden's comments seriously violated facts, diplomatic protocol and China's political dignity.
"They're an open political provocation," she told a news conference.
Asked how aware Xi had been about the balloon's movements, Mao reiterated China's previous explanation that the passage of the balloon through U.S. airspace had been unintended and caused by circumstances beyond its control.
"Biden's big mouth is a loose cannon," said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
"Mutual trust is what China has been stressing, so Biden's comments are very destructive and damaging," Wu said, while adding that the remarks may not totally undo what Blinken had achieved on his China visit. (Reuters)
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Contrary to claims the balloon blew off course, the Chinese were reportedly able to control the object, allowing it to make multiple passes, including flying in figure eight formations, over sensitive U.S. military sites to collect information.
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