A day after US President Joe Biden escalated tension between America and China after calling his Chinese counterpart "a dictator", he downplayed his statement and said, "An incident might have created confusion with China". “I don’t think it’s had any real consequence,” he said.
The latest remarks from Biden came after China fumed over his comments critical of Jinping and dubbed them as "extremely absurd and irresponsible". "It is "an open political provocation" that violates diplomatic etiquette," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in a press conference.
Meanwhile, President Biden, while addressing a joint conference with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said both nations had an incident that caused some confusion.
Biden announces to meet Xi soon
During the presser, Biden seems optimistic about holding another meeting with his Chinese counterpart. "...We had an incident that caused some confusion but Secretary Blinken had a great trip to China. I expect to be meeting Chinese President Xi sometime in the future," Biden said in relation to China.
"The idea of me choosing and avoiding saying what I think is facts with regard to the relationship with China is just not something I’m going to change very much," said the US President.
US-China tension
Notably, both China and the US have been at loggerheads ever since the then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan-- an island nation which Beijing claims as its own. Her visit came despite repeated warnings from Xi Jinping and his top officials.
Although it was expected that the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would cool down the tension between the two largest economies but a last-moment goof-up by alleged Chinese spy balloons had ruined all the speculations in February. This prompted the US to cancel the much-awaited trip of Blinken. At that time, the Biden administration had said it would send its top official but did not mention the timings.
Blinken trip to China failed to yield any results
However, Blinken, who landed in Beijing on Sunday and held multiple meetings over a series of pressing issues, later held the much-awaited meeting with President Xi Jinping. The vital meeting came hours before he was scheduled to take off from the land on which the US administration constantly claimed for grave human rights violations. The top US diplomat, who was the first one to visit Beijing in the last five years, reiterated that the Pentagon always advocated maintaining a nutritious relationship between the two nations and added the setting would be beneficial for the planet.
"President Biden sent me to Beijing because he believes that the United States and China have an obligation and responsibility to manage our relationship. The United States is committed to doing that. It's in the interest of the United States, in the interests of China, and in the interest of the world."
What Xi Jinping says
In a reply, Xi said, "The two sides have agreed to follow through on the common understandings President Biden and I have reached in Bali."
Further, the Chinese leader claimed that the two sides had made progress and reached agreements on "some specific issues", but did not elaborate. "This is very good," President stressed.
