China pushes back on Biden calling Xi a ‘dictator’

China’s Foreign Ministry is pushing back on President Biden calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator,” telling reporters Thursday it “strongly opposes” the comments, without mentioning Biden by name.

“This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a routine briefing Thursday, according to a Reuters report.

“It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage U.S.-China relations, they are doomed to fail,” Mao added.

When asked to specify the identity of “some people,” Mao refused, according to the wire.

Biden met with Xi on the sidelines of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, marking the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders in nearly a year.

In a press conference following the meeting, Biden called Xi a “dictator,” marking the second time this year the president referred to Xi as such.

“Look, he is. He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that is based on a form of government totally different from ours,” Biden told reporters on Wednesday following the leaders’ nearly four-hour meeting.

The comment comes months after Biden said in June he thought Xi was a dictator who got upset when the Chinese spy balloon was shot down in February because he didn’t know about it.

“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said at the time. “No, I’m serious. That was the great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened,”

The president also told reporters he was “blunt” with Xi on areas of tension between the two countries, while still touting agreement on three areas of cooperation.

Contention between the U.S. and China has flared up in recent years with regard to multiple issues — including the U.S. government’s sanctions on Chinese citizens and officials, restricted import of Chinese semiconductors, debate over the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, and Taiwan.

Both sides have recently signaled an easing of some of the tension, and Biden said Wednesday his meeting with Xi produced “positive steps.”