President of the United States Joe Bidenqualified on Tuesday his Chinese colleague, Xi Jinpingfor the dictator, adding that Xi was very embarrassed when a Chinese balloon recently veered off course over US territory.

Biden made the announcement at a fundraiser in California, a day after the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met Xi on a trip to China aimed at easing tensions between the two countries.

“The reason why Xi Jinping got so angry was because I hit this balloon with two wagons full of spy stuff. the thing is, he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said at the fundraiser.

“This is a great shame for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened. It shouldn’t have gone where it was going. It veered off course,” Biden added.

Alleged Chinese spy balloon flew over US airspace in February. This incident and the exchange of visits by US and Taiwan officials have recently heightened tensions between the US and China.

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Blinken and Xi agreed on Monday stabilize the bitter rivalry between Washington and Beijing to prevent it from escalating into conflict, but failed to make any significant progress during the Secretary of State’s rare visit to China.

They agreed to continue diplomatic relations with more visits from US officials in the coming weeks and months.

Biden himself said on Monday that he believes relations between the two countries are on the right track and indicated that progress was made during Blinken’s journey.

Biden said on Tuesday that Xi had raised concerns about the Quad Security Dialogue, a strategic security group also called “Quad” that includes Japan, Australia, India and the United States. The American President stated that he has already told Xi that the US is not going to encircle China with a group.

Biden will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this week and China is expected to be a topic of discussion between the two leaders. (rts)