NEW DELHI: A carefully planned summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping took a tense turn hours after their meeting when the US President referred to his Chinese counterpart as a "dictator".The term, which Biden has now used against Xi for the second time, didn't go down well with China, who called it "extremely absurd and irresponsible."At the same time, China ratcheted up its aggressive stance on Taiwan in the backdrop of the meeting, vowing to be "unstoppable in eventually retaking" the island nation.Biden's remarks and China's belligerence vis-a-visa Taiwan have underscored the palpable tensions weighing on both the sides even as they try to make progress on several issues.'He's a dictator'Addressing a solo press conference after a four-meeting with the Chinese President, Biden indicated that he had not changed his view that Xi was effectively a dictator."Look, he is.
He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," Biden said, when asked whether he still held the view.The remark again outraged China, which strongly opposed it without naming Biden."This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Thursday at a routine briefing."It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage US-China relations, they are doomed to fail."Biden had earlier referred to Xi as a "dictator" after the Chinese spy balloon row.Taiwan threatThough the countries agreed to resume military-to-military communications during the summit, the Taiwan issue remained largely unaddressed.According to reports, the leaders largely repeated old talking points about Taiwan, indicating that the issue is likely to remain thorny in the coming months.The tone for the hot-button issue was set by China hours before the summit, when it issued a stark warning about America's friendly ties with Taiwan.
"The US side should take real actions to honor its commitment of not supporting Taiwan independence, stop arming Taiwan, and support Chinas peaceful reunification.
China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying wrote in a post on X.Xi repeated the same to Biden during their talks, saying that US should hold on to its promise of not supporting "Taiwan independence".China will eventually be reunified and will inevitably be reunified, Xi said according to an official press release.Meanwhile, Biden repeated to Xi that he would not change the one-China policy, which he said previous US presidents had also upheld.
He said he believes China will not interfere in the upcoming Presidential elections in Taiwan.I didn't expect any interference, any at all.
We had that discussion as he was leaving," Biden said.(With inputs from agencies)WatchUS-China meet: 'Hes a dictator in the sense...', Biden reaffirms Xi Jinping as an autocrat