![]() Xi last visited the United States in 2017 for talks with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The two presidents could also arrange a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit Biden is hosting in November in San Francisco. Biden and Xi last met at a G20 conference in Bali. The White House said Tuesday it was too early to speculate whether such a meeting could occur on the sidelines of this year’s Group of 20 summit in India, scheduled for September. After his comment, some officials said it was too soon to say whether the fundraiser remarks would cause another breakdown in relations. We have every expectation of building on that progress,” the official said.Įlsewhere in his remarks Tuesday, Biden praised Blinken’s work to repair the relationship by reiterating he “did a good job” and adding that improving the relationship would “take time.” At a second fundraiser Tuesday, Biden told donors that US climate envoy John Kerry would also hopefully be making a trip to China “pretty soon” with a focus on the environment.īiden himself told reporters over the weekend he hoped to meet Xi in the coming months, believing high-level engagement is the only way to prevent the relationship from spiraling into conflict. ![]() Secretary Blinken had a good trip and made some progress. “The president believes that diplomacy, including that undertaken by Secretary Blinken, is the responsible way to manage tensions. The senior administration official expressed confidence Biden’s comments would not upend US diplomatic efforts with China, asserting “every expectation of building on” the progress Blinken made during his recent visit to Beijing. Washington’s top diplomat said Monday that the US and China had made “progress” toward bringing relations back on track with both sides agreeing on the need to “stabilize” their bilateral relationship. Describing Xi as “very embarrassed” and out of touch may act counter to those efforts.ĭuring his visit, Blinken met for just over half-an-hour with Xi in what was later described as a “constructive” conversation.īlinken hasn’t yet returned to Washington to brief Biden in-person on his visit, though White House officials said that was planned as soon as he’s back. Biden was speaking at a fragile moment for US-China ties, days after a high-profile diplomatic visit to Beijing by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared to yield a pause in the enmity. Perhaps more surprising than the content of Biden’s remarks, however, was their timing. “It should come as no surprise that the president speaks candidly about China and the differences that we have – we are certainly not alone in that,” the senior administration official said. “When it got shot down he was very embarrassed and he denied it was even there.”Īnother senior administration official said Biden’s candor on China was hardly shocking. “He didn’t know about it,” Biden told donors. But revealing that information in public – as Biden has done twice now over the past few days – caught some officials off guard since it had previously only been the private assessment of the situation. That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened.”īiden’s assessment that President Xi Jinping had been in the dark about the balloon accurately reflects US intelligence about the episode, one person familiar with the matter said. “The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden told Democratic donors underneath a white tent in a backyard in Marin County. And while some US officials expressed surprise after reading the president’s quotes, there was little to indicate he misspoke while detailing his view of the spy balloon incident earlier this year that temporarily caused a pause in US-China relations. Officials at the White House made no attempt to clarify Biden’s remark. Whether the new acrimony further derails a “thaw” in US-China ties, something that Biden has openly hoped for, remained an open question. “The remarks seriously contradict basic facts, seriously violate diplomatic etiquette, and seriously infringe on China’s political dignity,” the spokesperson for the foreign ministry said. When President Joe Biden referred to his Chinese counterpart as a dictator late Tuesday in California, the response from Beijing was swift and angry.
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