That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened,” Biden said. The US President’s comments came mere days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Beijing for meetings with key officials, including Xi. “The nature and impact are very negative,” the Chinese Embassy statement said. On Wednesday, the US State Department sought to downplay the potential impact of Biden’s comments, with State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel saying the remarks had “absolutely not at all” diminished the progress. And all of this is in our interests to do that,” Patel said at a State Department briefing.

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Persons: Xie Feng “, Joe Biden’s, Xi Jinping, Biden, “, Xi, ”, what’s, ” Biden, Antony Blinken, Blinken, ” Blinken, “ We’re, Vedant Patel, ” Patel Organizations: CNN, White, US Department of State, Embassy, US State Department, State Department Locations: United States, California, Beijing, China