Beijing did not take kindly to President Biden calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator” at a press conference following their hours-long summit.
Beijing did not take kindly to President Biden calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator” at a press conference following their hours-long summit Wednesday – but you wouldn’t know it from Chinese media.
Biden’s off-script characterization of Xi – which made Secretary of State Antony Blinken visibly wince – did not appear in China’s main state-run online media outlets, China Daily and Global Times, and experts tell The Post the move was likely strategic to project a rosy impression of US-China relations.
At a briefing with international reporters Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing “strongly opposes” Biden’s characterization, calling it “extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation.”
“It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage US-China relations,” Mao said, without mentioning the president by name. “They are doomed to fail.”
The statement is noticeably absent from the briefing’s transcript, which the ministry posted shortly after the press conference ended.
What remains is Mao’s glowing review of the Biden-Xi summit, which she called “positive, comprehensive and constructive” — comments that were dutifully repeated by official sources.
“It was an important opportunity for the two sides to build trust, clear up misgivings, manage differences and expand cooperation and an important meeting that adds certainty and stability for a world going through turmoil and changes,” Mao said. “San Francisco can be a new starting point for stabilizing China-US relations.”
Rosy reviews
The sudden positivity – and apparent cover-up – comes after a year marked by disturbing incidents that further soured the US-China relationship. In February, American jets shot down a Chinese spy balloon that Beijing sent through American airspace. Later, it was revealed that China has been operating a surveillance base in Cuba, just 90 miles south of Florida, since 2019.
