Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared to wince and shake his head when President Biden referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” on Wednesday — potentially upending months of tireless diplomacy to rebuild relations between the two countries.
Blinken, 61, physically recoiled and was seen shaking his head and fidgeting with his hands when Biden said Xi “is a dictator in the sense that he is a man who runs a country that is a communist country … based on a different form of government. of us” at a solo press conference.
The vague remarks came shortly after Biden, 80, met with Xi for four hours in San Francisco ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference — marking the two leaders’ first face-to-face meeting in a year.
Former Italian diplomat Marco Carnelos took X to call Blinken’s “desperate body language”. in response to Biden’s statement.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken sat in the front row at Biden’s press conference on Wednesday.AP
“Twelve months of hard work & diplomacy thrown down the toilet with simple words. WTF,” he wrote, followed by a palm emoji.
“Watch Tony Blinken’s body language when Biden says he thinks Xi is a dictator,” NBC News’ Ginger Gibson chimed in. “It’s like you can hear him take his breath.”
Conservative news outlet Citizen Free Press added that “Blinken looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole when Biden said Xi was a dictator.”
Biden and Xi met for the first time in a year in San Francisco on Wednesday.REUTERS
Blinken is still cleaning up the fallout from when Biden referred to Xi as a dictator in June, prompting a rapturous response from the Chinese government.
The US and China have been slowly rebuilding ties since the fallout over former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022 and controversy over China’s alleged spy balloon in February.
Biden spoke mostly positively about the meeting with Xi on Wednesday, telling reporters that the Chinese president agreed to block exports of pill presses and deadly fentanyl-related compounds.
Blinken appeared uncomfortable with Biden’s comments.AP
The summit also led to China and the US agreeing to resume military-to-military communications – although Xi, 70, warned Biden that the US “turning its back on China” was “not an option.”
The US State Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
