The White House confirmed Friday that an official diplomatic reprimand, known as a démarche, had been given to the US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns following President Joe Biden's comments comparing China's Xi Jinping to a dictator at a political fundraiser in California earlier this week.
The Chinese government called in Burns for the meeting this week in Beijing to protest Biden's remarks, according to two US officials familiar with the matter. The move by Beijing comes as officials are still assessing the potential effect of Biden's comments on US efforts to repair the fractured relationship between the two countries.
While confirming the development and declining to provide specifics, National Security Council's coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby stressed that the White House does not view the move as one with particularly significant consequences and that the US has not seen any further ramifications to the already-precarious relationship with China.
"If démarche issued by nations against other nations were some sort of bellwether for whether a relationship was collapsing or, or in any danger. I mean, my goodness, I mean, my goodness, Jeremy, a démarche is a démarche that happens all the time. I am not going to get into the specifics. I'm not going to get into the specifics of this one," Kirby said in a back-and-forth exchange with CNN's Jeremy Diamond.
The démarche came as the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Washington put out statements condemning Biden's remarks, which came just hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken had concluded his first trip to Beijing as America's top diplomat.
Biden on Thursday downplayed the impact of his off-the-cuff remarks, even as China has warned that there will be "consequences" with the Chinese embassy in the US describing it as a "smear."
"I don't think it's had any real consequence," Biden told reporters on Thursday.
Kirby, speaking from the White House press briefing room Friday, reiterated that Biden is "firm" that the relationship with China "matters" and that "we need to move it forward." He added that Biden made the assertion because "he believes it."
"We are still in communication with the PRC about moving this relationship forward. That's what we are focused on. And every indication that we're getting is that that's what the PRC wants to focus on as well," Kirby said on Friday.
State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said earlier in the week that the remarks had "absolutely not at all" diminished the progress in US-China relations that Blinken made during the visit.
But US officials privately expressed frustration over Biden's remarks. They are concerned about momentum from Blinken's visit being derailed, officials said. They believe the true effect from these comments remains unclear.
While he was in China, Blinken said that senior US officials would be visiting the country in the coming weeks. US officials are watching to see if the Chinese move ahead with plans for those visits, though they note that the Chinese have made it clear that they want to engage with the US on economic and trade issues.
They are also watching to see how China engages with the US on addressing the issue of fentanyl, after the two countries agreed during Blinken's visit to explore setting up a working group on the transnational challenge during Blinken's visit. They acknowledged that the moves by the Department of Justice on Friday to roll out charges against four chemical companies based in China and eight Chinese nationals for the trafficking of fentanyl precursor chemicals into the US were also likely to cause frustration for China.
The White House and the State Department did not attempt roll back Biden's remarks.
"We are not bashful about speaking plainly about some of the concerns and issues that we have with the PRC and the challenges that they propose and the president is very forthright in the way that he addresses those challenges and the complicated nature of this relationship," Kirby said on Friday.
The Chinse government did not publicly tout démarching Burns, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. US officials pointed out that China is currently celebrating a holiday, and they are closely watching to see what happens next week.
