WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th June, 2023) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, when addressing President Joe Biden's labeling of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as a dictator, that he speaks for all Americans.
"The President speaks for all of us. He speaks candidly, he speaks clearly," Blinken said in an interview with MSNBC when addressing a question on whether he agreed with Biden's characterization of Xi as a dictator.
Blinken added that he told his counterparts during his recent visit to Beijing, that the US would say and do things that the Chinese government would most likely dislike, just as China engages in the same practices, noting that both countries would have to work through such occurrences.
The Secretary said that one of the main objectives of his visit to China was to establish clear lines of communication to work out differences and to prevent the current bilateral competition from ending in a conflict.
Last Wednesday, Biden said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping did not have all the information about the incident involving an alleged Chinese balloon that the United States shot down, adding that it was a "great embarrassment for dictators."
The Chinese foreign ministry strongly protested Biden's remarks while Beijing's Embassy in Washington warned that the US would bear all the consequences if it did not undo the comments.
