The president’s remarks are the latest in a string of unexpectedly blunt, off-the-cuff statements about America’s adversaries.
President Biden might just have undercut his own drive for a diplomatic “thaw” with China, needling “dictator” Xi Jinping at a campaign fundraiser last night. Addressing the event, held in California, Biden also spoke extensively about his administration’s ongoing push to engage Beijing — and he revealed what one report has described as “sensitive” information about the Chinese spy balloon that had not previously been disclosed.
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there. No, I’m serious,” Biden said. “That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened.”
The Chinese foreign ministry fired back at Biden soon after he made the remarks, with spokesperson Mao Ning calling them “extremely absurd,” “irresponsible,” and “an open political provocation.”
Biden’s comments, in which he also said the U.S. doesn’t need to worry too much about China due to its declining economy, were unexpected in light of his push for a more cooperative relationship with the Chinese leadership following the deep freeze that resulted from the spy-balloon incident in February. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Beijing last weekend for talks with top Chinese diplomatic officials and Xi, with both sides characterizing the discussions as likely to lead to further meetings.
In the lead-up to Blinken’s trip, the U.S. reportedly took steps to delay sanctions on Chinese human-rights abusers implicated in the campaign against Uyghurs and new restrictions on Huawei. The administration also reportedly decided against releasing the results of an FBI investigation into the contents of the Chinese surveillance device, and President Biden downplayed the balloon’s significance on Saturday.
“I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional,” he said at the time, also suggesting that China’s leadership didn’t know “where it was” and “what was in it.”
But Biden’s comments last night were an unequivocal statement that Xi was unaware of the balloon’s existence and flight path. This, U.S. officials told the New York Times, was a surprising disclosure of “sensitive” information by the president about the U.S. government’s conclusions.
His remarks last night are the latest in a string of unexpectedly blunt, off-the-cuff statements about America’s adversaries. At a previous fundraiser in October, he said that Russian president Vladimir Putin was “not joking” about his threats to use a nuclear weapon against Ukraine and suggested that the world faces an “Armageddon” akin to what it came close to during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Before last night’s campaign fundraiser, the U.S. and China had been slated to continue a series of high-level exchanges to “stabilize” the bilateral relationship. Following Blinken’s trip, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo had been expected to travel to Beijing for talks with their counterparts. Now, the prospect of those exchanges taking place might be dimmer.
Some critics of Biden’s China policy commended him for his comments about Xi. Miles Yu, the senior adviser for China under former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, said on Twitter that he’s “glad” that Biden labeled Xi a dictator, saying that it’s a candid assessment and likely to strengthen Blinken’s hand. “These remarks publicly highlight the essence of the U.S.-China competition: a competition of freedom and democracy against tyranny and dictatorship,” Yu wrote.