Chinese President Xi Jinping may have called President Joe Biden an “old friend” during their first face-to-face meeting as world leaders, but Biden does not share the sentiment, according to the White House.
“He does not consider President Xi an ‘old friend,'” White House spokesman Andrew Bates told reporters on Tuesday.
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Xi greeted Biden at the start of their three-hour virtual meeting Monday night as “lao peng you.” Pool reporter Ching-Yi Chang, of U.S. News Center, wrote in his dispatch that “lao peng you,” or “old friend,” “has a very special meaning in China’s diplomacy.” The White House confirmed the interpretation.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki had been asked that afternoon about Biden’s December 2013 description of Xi as an “old friend,” adamant that Biden no longer holds the opinion.
“President Xi is somebody he has spent time with, he’s had face-to-face conversations with. And because of that, the president feels that he’s able to have candid discussions with President Xi,” she said.
A day later, Bates declined to comment on reports the Biden administration would stage a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. But he was clear that a boycott was not discussed during the pair’s meeting.
“I just don’t have anything to add on that subject right now,” he said.
In his first gaggle, or short, informal question-and-answer session with reporters, Bates also did not weigh in on former 2020 Democratic primary rival-floated gun czar Beto O’Rourke’s 2022 Texas gubernatorial campaign launch.
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“This is the first time I’ve gaggled. It’ll certainly be the last if I break the Hatch Act,” he said.
