Biden calls Xi a 'dictator' but hopes for better communication

US President Joe Biden called Chinese President Xi Jinping a "dictator" after their meeting just south of San Francisco on Wednesday, just days after making comments that he would like to improve communication channels with a direct line.
"He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," said Biden in a press conference following the meeting.
Biden previously called Xi a dictator in June after the US shot down a supposed Chinese surveillance balloon a few months earlier. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the June remark was "absurd and irresponsible."
Biden and Xi had not seen each other in person or spoken since the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022.
Shortly before their California meeting, Biden had said he'd like "to get back on a normal course, corresponding and being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another in a crisis."
Relations between the US and China have long been very tense, following economic sanctions against Beijing and fears in the West that China's army could invade Taiwan.