WASHINGTON, June 22. /TASS/. China will respond decisively to the statement by US President Joe Biden where he referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator, the Chinese embassy in Washington said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement said "the government and the people of China don’t tolerate any political provocations against the supreme leader of China and will give a decisive response to them."
"We call on the US side to take immediate and serious action to address the negative consequences [of Biden's words] and comply with its own commitments. Otherwise, it will have to bear all the consequences," the statement said.
According to Chinese diplomats, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng on Wednesday "made serious representations and strongly protested" to high-ranking White House and State Department officials. The statement noted that the US president's "disparaging remarks" about the Chinese president "are erroneous, absurd and irresponsible and constitute open political provocation."
"The Chinese side categorically rejects and strongly opposes them," the embassy said.
The statement also said, "The slandering of China's top leader by the United States seriously contradicts basic facts, violates diplomatic etiquette, infringes on China's political dignity, runs counter to the commitments made by the US side and undermines mutual trust."
Biden called Xi Jinping a "dictator" at his campaign fundraising meeting in California on Tuesday. Yet on Monday, commenting on Blinken's June 18-19 visit to Beijing, the US president said that the US-China relations were on the right track.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Biden's remarks about Xi Jinping a manifestation of unpredictable US policy.