June 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has assured this Thursday that his latest statements about his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, whom he called a “dictator” the day before, have had “no real consequences” for the relationship between the two nations.
Biden explained during a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he hopes to meet Xi “at some point in the not too distant future” and that his statements have not undermined continued efforts to improve bilateral ties, Bloomberg has reported.
Biden said during a fundraising event in California that Xi was upset after a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down by the United States in February because he was unaware it was a spy device.
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very angry when I shot down that balloon (which had) two boxes full of spy equipment is that he did not know they were there. That has been the great shame of dictators, when they did not know what they were doing. had happened,” he said.
Biden’s remarks came after Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid a visit to China, where he met with Xi’s top foreign policy adviser Wang Yi and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang after weeks of tensions between the two powers.
