this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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I mean, yeah, he is a dictator. How is this news?
I understand it to be geopolitically significant. Biden, head of state for a big country. Xi, head of state for another big country. China's made it known they don't want Xi called a dictator. Biden's done it anyway.
It's the scale of the thing that matters here. It's a political statement of gravity. He's calling any bluff they've got going, and demonstrating that the USA doesn't respect China enough to use their preferred nomenclature. It's a calculated insult and a challenge.
A challenge yes, but hard to see as an insult by the audience as while the term isn't flattering in a modern context it's closer to how Xi has aligned himself.
Occam's Razor says that Biden, a famously gaffe-prone politician, simply made a gaffe.
This is just a replay of the "Oh He's Just An Innocent Idiot" nonsense that was so popular around George Bush. People would say he's an idiot and didn't realize what he was doing, and that got him off the hook for the absolute atrocities he committed against not only the people of his own country but several others around the world. Don't give Biden the same treatment; don't let him off easy.
If it was a mistake, it's not a minor one; major "mistakes" like this warrant corrections after the fact, either from Biden directly or from White House communications. Since he hasn't corrected it, it's safe to assume it was intended.