The Chinese Foreign Ministry immediately reacted harshly, calling the US president’s statement irresponsible. “The US side’s statements are extremely absurd and irresponsible, seriously contradict basic facts, violate diplomatic protocols, and undermine China’s political dignity,” said Mao Ning, spokesperson for the diplomatic department. According to her, such statements are “an open political provocation”.
But the State Department saw nothing critical in Biden’s remarks and does not expect the statements to affect contacts between representatives of the two countries in any way.
It should be noted that the UN declined to comment on this incident. But the media played on this subject.
As became known to NBC News, senior US officials were caught off guard by Biden’s remarks about Xi Jinping. US officials have privately tried to clarify that the president’s words “do not reflect a new thesis or a change in official administration policy,” news outlets reported.
As CNN garnered attention, the US leader’s statement came at a time of particularly strained relations between the two countries and against the backdrop of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to China. He became the first US Secretary of State to visit Beijing in five years. Although the talks did not lead to major breakthroughs, the parties agreed to continue contacts.
The Washington Post, citing officials, writes that the United States and China can still develop a positive dialogue. But the newspaper’s sources do not know how much Biden’s remarks will affect progress. Some fear it will be cancelled. John Delury, professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, for example, agrees. Biden’s inflammatory remark, he said, “jeopardizes some of what has been done.” At the same time, The Washington Post recalls that the American president was previously known for his missteps. “Biden’s comment was far from the first time he caused an uproar, … forced his own diplomats into afterthought mode,” the publication notes.
“He’s not very good (…) at distinguishing between what should be said in public and what should be said in private,” said Bonnie Glazer, spokeswoman for the George Marshall Foundation.
The newspaper also quotes Daniel Russell, the head of US diplomacy for East Asia under President Barack Obama, who called the off-the-record remarks a “trademark of Joe Biden”. “It was, to say the least, an ill-conceived turn of phrase,” Russell said. “There is a trend in American politics where candidates in presidential campaigns speak quite harshly about China, and it is not unique to this day,” he added.
The New York Times notes that Biden’s remarks were unplanned. The newspaper, citing an official, writes that these words reflect a personal position, but officials were surprised by the very fact of such statements in public. It is assumed that the president wanted to reassure his supporters, alarmed by the economic rise of China, and therefore broached the subject of relations with the PRC.
The newspaper also quotes Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who said Beijing understands that many of Biden’s public comments were unplanned and are therefore ignoring some of them. However, they may cause problems in the United States if, after such remarks to Xi Jinping, diplomatic contacts with China do not yield results. “There will be a constant stream of criticism from Congress. I think it will be very difficult for the administration to deal with this,” Cooper said.
But the New York Post, through its interlocutors, criticized Biden for an entirely different reason. The newspaper quoted Chad Gilmartin, spokesman for Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as saying Biden justified the Chinese leader by saying Xi Jinping did not know the location of the downed balloon. At the same time, the position of Michael McCall, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is given, who said that “it was the American administration that did not know what to do (with the ball) , and that embarrassed the American people.”
But the Chinese media actually ignored the US president’s outrageous statement. Apparently, in the PRC, the comment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is sufficient. The Global Times, for example, limited itself to reporting on Blinken’s visit, which led China and the United States to agree to stabilize their relations, which are at a low point, and to keep the lines of open communications. The next two months are crucial for practical discussions and tangible results.
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