Loading player
During a fundraising event in California, US President Joe Biden spoke somewhat unexpectedly on Tuesday evening about US-China relations, revealing some hitherto unknown US intelligence assessments and calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator”. Biden’s words were judged very strange above all because they came the day after the meeting in China between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Xi Jinping himself, which should have served as the first attempt to restore closer relations between the two countries after a few years of very complicated relations. Even the Chinese government said it perceived them as a “provocation”.
Biden referred in particular to the events of a few months ago which had concerned the Chinese balloon which according to the United States was used in espionage operations in American airspace: the United States had discovered and shot it down in early February, and the thing it had further worsened diplomatic relations between the two countries, which had accused each other of serious violations.
According to Biden, “the reason why Xi Jinping got very angry” for the shooting down of the balloon “is that he didn’t know it was there”. Biden then commented very clearly, always referring to Xi Jinping: «It is a great embarrassment for dictators when they don’t know what happened. [il pallone] It shouldn’t have been there. He was blown off course.’
The information that the Chinese government was unaware of the location of the balloon had never been discussed in public until now, but according to an American official with whom the New York Times would reflect the conclusions reached by US intelligence in recent months. Always according to the New York Timesseveral US government officials would have been surprised that Biden shared this assessment.
According to American newspapers, it is not clear what the purpose of Biden’s speech was, which however could further complicate attempts to strengthen relations with China, which began just in the previous days with Blinken’s diplomatic mission. After the meeting, Xi spoke of “progress”, arguing that the two sides had “reached an agreement on some specific issues”, without however saying which ones. Blinken had been a little more cautious, he said that both agreed “on the need to re-establish our relationship”, but he also underlined that there were “many issues on which we deeply – and even vehemently – disagree”.
In California, Biden then called it “very important” that Xi has reached the point of “wanting to re-establish a relationship” and praised Blinken’s work in China. The Chinese government has so far responded to Biden’s statements through a comment by Mao Ning, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry: he defined them as “a provocation” which has “seriously violated the political dignity of China”.