President of the United States Joe Biden has referred to Xi Jinping as a dictator.
His comments come a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Mr. Xi in Beijing for discussions aimed at reducing tensions between the two rival superpowers.
Mr. Blinken said that both parties were willing to continue talking while Mr. Xi claimed that progress had been made.
China didn't respond to Mr. Biden's remark right away.
Speaking at a fundraiser in California, President Biden claimed that Mr. Xi was embarrassed by the recent hostilities surrounding a Chinese spy balloon that had been blown off course over the US.
When I shot that balloon down, it contained two box cars full of spy gear, and Xi Jinping was very upset because he was unaware of its presence, according to Mr. Biden.
"For dictators, that is a major embarrassment. they were clueless as to what had occurred. " .
The purpose of Mr. Blinken's trip to Beijing, which was the first by a senior US diplomat in nearly five years, was to reopen high-level communications between the two nations.
But Mr. Blinken made it clear later that significant differences continued to exist.
Long-standing disputes between Washington and Beijing involve trade, human rights, and Taiwan, among other things.
