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SPD foreign policy expert Nils Schmid: "The US president has the gift of sometimes abruptly naming things as they are"

Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/ dpa

China's embassy in Washington has protested US President Joe Biden's remarks comparing Chinese leader Xi Jinping to a dictator. The U.S. should act immediately to reverse the negative effects or face all the consequences, the embassy said Thursday. However, the Biden statement was supported by SPD foreign policy expert Nils Schmid: "The US president has the gift of sometimes abruptly naming things as they are. Of course, China is a one-party dictatorship," Schmid told Reuters.

China reacted angrily after Biden equated Xi with a dictator at a fundraiser on Tuesday – an unexpected statement just a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing aimed at stabilizing tense relations between the two superpowers. The Chinese government spoke on Wednesday of a provocation. In a statement, the Chinese embassy said that Ambassador Xie Feng had made "serious" representations to high-ranking representatives of the US presidential office and the State Department and had protested violently. In China itself, however, the incident was not reported at all by the state media.

The SPD politician Schmid pointed out that it was possible to maintain contacts even with a one-party dictatorship and even enter into partnerships on individual points. "The U.S. and Germany are also trying to establish close contacts with Vietnam – also a one-party dictatorship. I, for one, am not outraged by Biden's statement," he said.

The US president has also reacted to the fact that China openly relativizes the Western model of government and claims to be a democracy itself. "If the Chinese try to redefine democracy, the rule of law and universal human rights, there will be more frequent exchanges of fundamental points of view," Schmid said.

Biden, meanwhile, was undaunted, saying his blunt remarks about China were "not something I'm going to change much." During a press conference at the White House, which he gave together with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Biden said: "I expect to meet with President Xi at some point in the future, in the near future. And I don't think that has had a real impact."

jso/Reuters/AP