Video shows the moment Antony Blinken winces after Biden calls China's Xi a dictator, upending months of careful diplomacy
Antony Blinken appeared to be taken aback by President Joe Biden's description of Xi Jinping as a dictator at a press conference on November 15, 2023.
NBC President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping sought to smooth relations at a meeting Wednesday. Yet hours after the carefully choreographed event, Biden described Xi as a "dictator." Secretary of State Antony Blinken's reaction told its own story.
A video has captured the moment US Secretary of State Antony Blinken winces after President Biden calls Chinese leader Xi Jinping a "dictator". During a press conference in the wake of a meeting designed to smooth frayed US-China relations, Biden was asked whether he stood by remarks in June in which he described Xi as a "dictator."
"Look, he is. He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," Biden said.