Biden maintains stance on Xi as ‘dictator,’ no shift in Beijing ties.

President Biden Stands by “Dictator” Remark on Xi Jinping

President Joe Biden stated on Thursday that his comments about Chinese leader Xi Jinping being a “dictator” will have no real impact on the U.S.–China relationship.

During a joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Biden said that he stood by his remarks on Xi.

When asked by a reporter if his words would undermine or complicate his administration’s efforts to maintain a relationship with China, he said, “No.”

He added that choosing or avoiding telling the truth about the U.S.–China relationship is “just not something I’m going to change very much.”

The president smiled as he explained, “We had an incident that caused some confusion, you might say.”

“But Secretary Blinken had a great trip to China. I expect to be meeting with President Xi sometime in the future, in the near term, and I don’t think it’s had any real consequence,” he added.

Biden made comments about Xi during a fundraiser event in California on Tuesday. He unexpectedly referred to the Chinese leader as a “dictator” while recalling the recent spy balloon incident.

Biden said the Chinese spy balloon, which was shot down in February by the U.S. military after being blown off course over the United States, had caused “great embarrassment” for Xi.

“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said at the event.

“That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course.”

Biden’s comments came a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his meetings in Beijing.

Blinken described his China trip, which included a meeting with Xi, as “robust,” adding that both parties agreed on the importance of stabilizing the difficult relations between the two powers.

“I came to Beijing to strengthen high-level challenges of communication, to make clear our positions and intentions in areas of disagreement, and to explore areas where we might work together when our interests align on shared transnational challenges. And we did all of that,” Blinken said at a press conference following his meeting with Xi.

Xi also expressed satisfaction with the progress made over the two days of talks between top U.S. and Chinese officials. Blinken, however, noted that the Chinese communist regime refused Ameri