Biden equates China’s Xi with ‘dictators’

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden equated his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping with “dictators” as he addressed a Democratic Party donors reception in the presence of journalists.

Speaking at a fundraiser in northern California Tuesday, Biden said Xi had been angered over an incident in February when a Chinese balloon – which Washington says was used for spying –flew over the United States before being shot down by American military jets.

“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of

Chinese carrier, warship group passes through Taiwan Strait

CHINA’S Shandong aircraft carrier led a group of warships through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, Taipei’s defense ministry said.

Beijing has ramped up sea and air incursions in recent years around self-ruled Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory, but the deployment of the Shandong through the waterway separating the island from mainland China is a rarity.

“A Chinese Communist Shandong aircraft carrier group passed through the west side of the Taiwan Strait in a southerly direction today June 21,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The (Taiwan) military was closely monitoring our territorial air and sea movements and will respond accordingly.”

The Shandong, one of two aircraft carriers in the Chinese fleet, last passed through the Strait in May. It was also deployed during war games staged by Beijing in April that involved fighter jets carrying “live ammunition” conducting simulated strikes around the democratic island.

Those exercises were a response to a meeting between Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen – who staunchly rejects China’s territorial claims over the island – and US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.

Beijing had warned before the meeting that it would provoke strong countermeasures.

The presence of Chinese warships and jets around Taiwan has intensified since the meeting. AFP spy equipment is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said.

“I’m serious. That was the great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened.”

Biden’s remarks come days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a visit to Beijing aimed at reestablishing lines of communication in order to avoid conflict between the two global powers.

The multi-faceted rivalry between China and the United States turned into a full-blown diplomatic crisis with February’s balloon incident.

Responding to Biden’s comments Wednesday, Beijing slammed them as an “open political provocation.”

“The relevant remarks by the US side are extremely absurd and irresponsible, they seriously violate basic facts, diplomatic protocol and China’s political dignity,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a briefing.

“China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to this,” she added.

Biden, who at 80 is running for reelection, on Tuesday waved off concerns about the Asian giant, telling donors that “China has real economic difficulties.”

Still on the subject of China and Xi, Biden said “we’re in a situation now where he wants to have a relationship again.”

Blinken “did a good job” on his Beijing trip, but “it’s going to take time,”

Biden added. The US president did bring up another prickly point regarding communist-ruled China: a recent summit in which leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States—known as the Quad group— sought to boost peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific maritime region.

The four countries are “working hand in glove in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean,” Biden said.

“What he (Xi) was really upset about was that I insisted that we unite the... socalled Quad,” Biden said.

Tuesday was not the first time Biden has made significant, even provocative, statements at fund-raising receptions, usually small-scale events at which cameras and recordings are forbidden but where journalists may listen to and transcribe the president’s opening remarks. AFP

Ukraine to get $1.3b US economic aid

SECRETARY of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday announced $1.3 billion in fresh US economic assistance for Ukraine, and vowed that Russia would eventually pay financially for its invasion.

“As Russia continues to destroy, we are here to help Ukraine rebuild – rebuild lives, rebuild its country, rebuild its future,” Blinken told a reconstruction conference in London.

“Let’s be clear – Russia is causing Ukraine’s destruction, and Russia will eventually bear the cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction,” he said to applause, echoing remarks by leaders from Britain and the European Union.

The new funding – which comes from money already approved by the US Congress – is in addition to $63 billion provided by the United States to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. Some $40 billion of the assistance has come in weapons and other security support. Of the new aid, some $657 million will go to upgrading Ukraine’s rail lines, ports, border crossings and other infrastructure to help the country expand trade with Europe, Blinken said.

LONGEST DAY. Revelers sing as they stand by the stones and wait for the sun to rise at Stonehenge, near Amesbury, in Wiltshire, southern England on June 21, 2023, to celebrate the Summer Solstice festival. The stone monument – carved and constructed at a time when there were no metal tools—symbolizes Britain’s semi-mythical pre-historic period, and has spawned countless legends. ı