Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has refused to call Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator after U.S. President Joe Biden’s used the description of his Asian counterpart.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden said on Wednesday he still regards the Chinese leader Xi as a “dictator,” prompting a testy response from Beijing which denounced Biden’s remarks as an “irresponsible political maneuver” but did not explain why Xi should be considered otherwise.
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The White House / FacebookLeft-wing leader Albanese dodged questions on whether he considered Xi Jinping a dictator on the sidelines of the APEC Summit on Thursday.
The prime minister refused to respond to reporters when he fielded questions after speaking from the summit in San Francisco in keeping with his recent efforts to appease Beijing.
“Just on President Biden’s remarks yesterday about Xi Jinping being a dictator, is he wrong? Would you agree with him? Is Xi Jinping a dictator?” one reporter asked, Sky News Australia reports.
Albanese responded, emphasising Australia and China’s political systems were “different.”
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives for the leaders and spouses dinner during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, California, on November 16, 2023. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
“We have different political systems. Australia has one political system, China has a different political system from Australia. It’s not a democratic state with elections, with multi-party democracies like Australia is,” he said.
Sky News sets out the reporter tried to pose the question again, asking “does that make him a dictator though?” before Albanese snarled, “Well I just answered your question.”
Further questions followed from other reporters who speculated whether Biden’s “dictator” remarks had damaged progress made between Australia, the U.S. and China in the hotly contested Asia/Pacific region.
Albanese’s decision to sidestep questions over how he would describe XI’s leadership comes after his recent visit to Beijing and his scarcely disguised delight at the prospect of being seen alongside the dictator, as Breitbart News reported.
U.S. President Joe Biden, center, and Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, right, exchange smiles during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) informal dialogue and working lunch in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023. (Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg via Getty)
Albanese’s four-day visit to the Communist state saw him splitting his time between Shanghai and Beijing, in the first such visit by an Australian leader in seven years.
The Australian Labor Party (ALP) leader gushed the occasion was “a historic time for me” coming on the 50th anniversary of another left-wing Australian PM Gough Whitlam being the first Australian prime minister to officially visit China.
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