China condemns Biden’s ‘extremely irresponsible’ comments on Xi Jinping
BEIJING: Beijing on Thursday condemned comments by U.S. President Joe Biden that Chinese leader Xi Jinping faced “many problems,” calling them “extremely irresponsible.”
during an interview pbs news hourBiden said on Wednesday that China’s ability to compete with the United States is limited by the need to protect international trade, while Xi himself is in an unenviable position.
China hit back at the remarks on Thursday, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning telling a regular news briefing that Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied”.
“Such remarks by the U.S. side are extremely irresponsible and contrary to basic diplomatic etiquette,” Mao said, adding that Beijing “strongly opposes it.”After a brief warm-up following the G20 meeting between Biden and Xi Jinping in November, U.S.-China relations cooled as a high-altitude Chinese balloon appeared over the U.S. and was shot down by the U.S. Air Force on Saturday. Killed
The US claimed the balloon was used for espionage – a claim China has denied, arguing it was a weather observation device but had gone off course.
Biden says Xi faces ‘too many problems’
In Wednesday’s interview, Biden defended the decision to shoot down Kraft and emphasized that the United States does not seek to confront China.
But he also said Mr Xi had “a lot of problems”, including “a poor economic performance”.
“Can you think of any other world leader who would switch places with Xi Jinping? I can’t think of one,” Biden said.