Biden will meet China’s Xi Jinping AGAIN after San Francisco talks – and stands by calling him a dictator, White House spokesman John Kirby says

President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping plan to meet again after their four-hour conversation in San Francisco that cemented agreements on fentanyl and defense contacts, the White House said Monday.

National security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that another high-stakes meeting was on the agenda as he defended Biden’s comment last week where he stood by calling Xi a “dictator.”

The comment did not go down well in Chinese state media, although Xi Jinping gave a speech to US CEOs on Wednesday immediately after his call with Biden, declaring that China is “ready to be a partner and friend of the United States.” ‘

“They agreed that they would meet again,” Kirby told reporters at the White House, adding that there was “no date on a calendar.”

That left it open when and where Biden would meet again. Biden is not expected to attend the upcoming COP summit in the United Arab Emirates. China is not part of the G7, which meets in Italy in June, while the G20 meeting in Brazil will not take place until November.

Kirby was asked to respond to a statement from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning, who called the president’s comment about the “dictator” “extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation.”

Biden had been asked if he stood by his own earlier “dictator” comment. The question came immediately after he wrapped up meetings with Xi in an effort to get ties back on track after deep divisions over Taiwan, Ukraine, trade and Chinese military activities in the South China Sea.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby mentioned ‘deliverables’ during Biden’s meeting with Xi Jinping

Aides arranged the first meeting between the two men in more than a year at a California estate amid dangerously escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing

“Well, look, he’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a man who runs a country that is a communist country and is based on a completely different form of government than ours,” Biden responded. “Regardless, we have made progress,” he added.

Kirby spoke to what he called “concrete results” from the Biden-Xi meeting.

That included restoring military-to-military communications and Xi vowed to crack down on the production of chemicals used in fentanyl production.

Kirby also mentioned an assignment to two teams to “work on artificial intelligence, especially in the area of ​​national security.”

“There’s been an awful lot of good results that have come out of this meeting between President Biden and President Xi and the President is looking forward to it, we’re looking forward to managing this relationship in a more responsible way and moving things forward,” he continued. .

He said the US is “looking for ways we can work together, but also not afraid to confront where we can, including when it comes to tensions in the South China Sea.” So the president and his entire national security are now focused on the future when they come out of San Francisco.”

His comments followed a trip to San Francisco, where Biden hosted the APEC summit of Asia-Pacific leaders, where he praised Governor Gavin Newsom and partied with Gwen Stefani, raising campaign money, skipping hard-to-pronounce company names and met with the Mexican president, before passing the torch to the Peruvian president for next year’s event.

Asked about Biden’s “dictator” answer, Kirby said, “The president has made it very clear that he was asked a direct question, he gave a direct answer, and he stands by that direct answer.”

“That doesn’t mean that as true as that statement was, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t still prospects here to find ways to cooperate and compete with China in a more responsible way in the future,” he said.