Biden calls China’s Xi Jinping a ’dictator’ after face-to-face meeting

A welcoming handshake set the scene for what U.S. President Joe Biden called ’major progress’ in his first face-to-face talks in a year with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two agreed on Wednesday to open a presidential hotline, to resume communications between their militaries and to work together to curb the opioid crisis in America. At the start of their four-hour meeting outside San Francisco, Biden stressed the need for open dialogue. “It’s paramount that you and I understand each other clearly, leader to leader with no misconceptions or miscommunication. We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict. We also have to manage it responsibly, that competition.” Xi called China-U.S. ties the most important bilateral relationship in the world, saying “turning their back on each other is not an option.“ The restart of military-to-military contacts is a significant breakthrough, as China had severed those links after then-House Speaker Nan