Biden calls Xi Jinping a dictator day after Blinken visits China to ease tensions

President Biden on Tuesday referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator who suffered a “great embarrassment” when one of his spy balloons sailed over the US without his knowledge earlier this year.

The 80-year-old president made the remarks during a fundraiser in Kentfield, Calif., one day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Xi in China on a trip aimed at easing tensions between Washington and Beijing that have soared since the balloon flyover. 

“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 claimed at the fundraiser.

“That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course,” the president added.

The suspected Chinese spy balloon breached US airspace in February and hovered over sensitive US nuclear weapons sites before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina after it had crossed the entire US mainland. 

Biden’s claim that Xi didn’t know about the whereabouts of his military’s sophisticated surveillance craft didn’t sit well with many Republicans. 

“Blown off course? Didn’t the Chinese spy balloon deliberately maneuver directly over some of the most sensitive military bases across our country? Why is Biden making excuses for Xi?” Chad Gilmartin, a spokesman for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), said in a tweet on Tuesday. 

Over the weekend, the president told reporters that “China has some legitimate difficulties unrelated to the United States.”

Biden added, “I think one of the things that balloon caused was not so much that it got shot down, but I don’t think the leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on. I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional.” 

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) rebuked Biden’s comments, telling Fox News that “it was the administration that didn’t know what they were doing, and it was embarrassing for the American people.”

Blinken admitted Monday that he was not successful at convincing Xi to re-establish a military deconfliction line during the high stakes meeting – one of the administration’s top goals. 

The Chinese government scrapped both the military-to-military line and some diplomatic talks last year in protest of a Taiwan trip by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).