President Joe Biden said Tuesday night that President Xi Jinping of China had been kept in the dark by his own government about the spy balloon that crossed into United States airspace this winter before being shot down by an American fighter jet.
At a campaign fundraiser in California, Biden set off into what appeared to be an unplanned riff about the incident that ruptured relations with China for months, revealing what United States intelligence agencies had learned about the internal confusion in Beijing during the incident.
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden told about 130 guests at the big-dollar event in a private Kentfield home. “No, I’m serious. That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened.”
Other US officials were surprised Tuesday night that the president would discuss the sensitive information in a public setting, but one official who has been briefed on the intelligence and spoke on condition of anonymity said Biden’s remarks accurately reflected the American government’s private assessment.
The president’s comments came just a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Xi in Beijing to smooth over the rift from the spy balloon incident. Blinken’s trip, which was originally cancelled after the presence of the balloon became public, was seen as a constructive step toward the “thaw” Biden has sought, including a possible conversation between the two presidents later this year.
“The very important point is he’s in a situation now where he wants to have a relationship again,” Biden said of Xi. “Tony Blinken just went over there, our secretary of state; did a good job. And it’s going to take time.”
The president’s discussion of the spy balloon incident, however, may complicate that diplomatic outreach if it is perceived as demeaning Xi, who holds a tight grip on power in China and values the impression of control. Chinese officials have never disclosed the origins of the balloon flight and offered no immediate reaction to Biden.
“That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was,” Biden said of the balloon at the California fundraiser. “It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States, and he didn’t know about it,” he added, referring to Xi. “When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.”
The balloon provoked a furore in the United States when it was spotted floating over a nuclear missile site in Montana, then passed above Kansas City and finally was blown up by a Sidewinder missile fired by an F-22 fighter jet just off the coast of South Carolina. U.S. officials have previously said they suspected the craft was supposed to conduct surveillance over U.S. military bases in Guam and Hawaii but got blown off course to Alaska and eventually the continental United States, but they had not publicly disclosed Xi’s apparent ignorance.
This was not the first time Biden has made off-the-cuff remarks about foreign policy during an evening fundraiser. At another such event in New York in October, he warned donors that the world was closer to nuclear destruction than at any time since John F. Kennedy faced off against Nikita Khrushchev over Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962. “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” Biden said then, prompting a nervous reaction.
In California on Tuesday, Biden was addressing Democratic contributors at the home of Mark Robinson, an investment banker, and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, who has worked as a management consultant and investment banker. In offering a wide-ranging review of international affairs, Biden focused on China, which has been on his mind lately. He used the occasion to try to tamp down American anxiety over Beijing’s economic rise and increasing assertiveness on the world stage.
“Don’t worry about China,” Biden said. “I mean, worry about China, but don’t worry about China,” he added to laughter. “No, but I really mean it. China is real – has real economic difficulties.”
After discussing the spy balloon, the president went on to say that Xi was frustrated by Biden’s efforts to bolster the Quad, an alignment of the United States, Japan, Australia and India seen as a counterpoint to Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Biden met with the Quad leaders last month on the sidelines of the Group of Seven meeting in Hiroshima, Japan.
“What he was really upset about was that I insisted that we reunite the so-called Quad,” Biden said. “He called me and told me not to do that because it was putting him in a bind. I said, ‘All we’re doing – we’re not trying to surround you, we’re just trying to make sure the international rules with air and sea lanes remain open.’ And we’re not going to yield to that – on that.”
“So now,” he added, “we have India, Australia, Japan and the United States working hand in glove in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.