Remarks by President Biden in a Press Conference, Following the Summit

choi

(1) There is no news report when the meeting started and ended, but here are clues.
(a) VOA Exclusive: Biden, Xi to Meet at Filoli Estate for 4 Hours of Talks Wednesday. VOA, Nov 14, 2023, 7:59 am
https://www.voanews.com/a/voa-ex ... esday-/7354133.html
("The location [Filoli] of the talks is a VOA exclusive. * * * Xi and Biden both arrive in the San Francisco area on Tuesday [Nov 14] ahead of their meetings, which are expected to include a working lunch, a stroll on the estate, and a smaller meeting with national security advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken present. Other senior officials will hold separate sessions on particular issues")
(b) Remarks by President Biden and President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China Before Bilateral Meeting | Woodside, CA. White House, Nov 15, 2023, 11:23 am PST.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/brief ... eeting-woodside-ca/


(2) Remarks by President Biden in a Press Conference. White House, Nov 15, 2023 "5:20 pm PST [Pacific Standard Tine]."
https://www.whitehouse.gov/brief ... erence-woodside-ca/

Quote:

(I) monologue:
(a) "THE PRESIDENT:  I didn’t know there were this many people in town.  Please have a seat.  As you know, I just concluded several hours of meetings with President Xi, and I believe they were some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had.

"I've been meeting with President Xi since both of us were vice president over 10 years ago.  Our meetings have always been candid and straightforward.  We haven't always agreed, but they've been straightforward. * * *

(b) "In 2019, you may remember, China took action to greatly reduce the amount of fentanyl shipped directly from China to the United States.  But in the years since that time, the challenge has evolved from finished fentanyl to fentanyl chemical ingredients and — and pill presses, which are being shipped without controls.  And, by the way, some of these pills are being inserted in other drugs, like cocaine, and a lot of people are dying.

"More people in the United States between the ages of 18 to 49 die from fentanyl than from guns, car accidents, or any other cause.  Period.

"So, today, with this new understanding, we’re taking action to significantly reduce the flow of precursor chemicals and pill presses from China to the Western Hemisphere.  It’s going to save lives, and I appreciate President Xi’s commitment on this issue.

(c) "I also stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

(II) Q&A session:

(a) "THE PRESIDENT: * * * And that's — now I'd like to be able to take some questions, if I may.  And I'm told that Demetri of the Financial Times has the first question.

"Q    Thank you.  And as an Irishman, I apologize for bringing the rain.

"THE PRESIDENT:  Well, holy God, I wouldn't have called on you if I had known that.  (Laughter.)  No, I'm teasing.  Go ahead.  Fire away, Demetri.

(b) "THE PRESIDENT: * * * Next question, sorry, was Bloomberg.

"Q    Good evening, Mr President.  It appears, among other issues, that your agreement with President Xi over fentanyl would require — will require a lot of trust and verification to ensure success in curbing those drug flows.  I'm wondering: After today and considering all that you've been through in the past year, would you say, Mr President, that you trust President Xi?

"And secondly, if I could, on Taiwan.  You've — you and your administration officials have warned President Xi and Chi- — China about interference in the upcoming election.  I'm wondering what would the consequences be if they do, in fact, interfere in the election.  Thank you.

"THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I may have had that discussion with him, too.  I made it clear: I didn't expect any interference [with presidential election in Taiwan], any at all.  And we had that discussion as — as he was leaving.

"Look, do I trust?  You know, I — “'trust but verify,' as the old saying goes.  That's where I am.

"And, you know, we’re in a competitive relationship, China and the United States.  But my responsibility is to — to make it — make this rational and manageable so it — so it doesn't result in conflict.

"That's what I'm all about, and that's what this is about: to find a place where we can come together and where we find mutual interests that — but, most importantly, from my perspective, that are in the interests of the American people.  That's what this is about, and that's exactly what we’'l do.

"You know, we're in a situation where we agreed that fentanyl and its precur- — its precursors will be curbed substantially and the pill presses.  That's a big — that's a big movement [of (illicit) rugs].  They're doing —

"And, by the way, you know, I won't — I guess I shouldn't identify where it occurred.  But, John, I know two people near where I live.  Their kids, literally, as I said — stra- — they woke up dead.   Someone had inserted in — whether the young man did or not — inserted, in a drug he was taking, fentanyl.

"Again, I — I don't — I hope you don't have any experience with knowing anyone, but this is the largest killer of people in that age category.

"And, you know, I guess the other thing I think is most important is that since I — I've spent more time with President Xi than any world leader has, just because we were vice presidents.  His president was President Hu; I'm not making a joke.  President Hu and — and President Obama thought we should get to know one another.  It wasn't appropriate for the president of United States to be walking — dealing with the vice president.

"So, we met — if I'm not mistaken, I think it was 68 hours of just face to face — just us and a simultaneous interpreter.

"So, I — I think I know the man.  I know his modus operandi.  He's been — we have disagreements.  He has a different view than I have on a lot of things.  But he's been straight.  I don't mean that he's good, bad, or indifferent.  He's just been straight.

"And so, you know, we — as I said, the thing that I — I find most assuring is he raised and I fully agreed that if either one of us have any concern, Mr Ambassador [I have no clue about whom Biden referred to] — any concern about anything between our nations or happening in our region, we should pick up the phone and then call one another, and we’ll take the call.  That’s an important progress.

"I'm embarrassed — I think it's CBS, but I can’t remember who with CBS.  I'm sorry.

"Q    Thank you, Mr President.  Weijia Jiang with CBS.

"THE PRESIDENT:  Sorry.  (Laughs.)  I apologize.

(c) "Q    And, Mr President, after today, would you still refer to President Xi as a 'dictator'?  This is a term that you used earlier this year.

"THE PRESIDENT:  Well, look, he is.  I mean, he’s a dictator in the sense that he — he is a guy who runs a country that — it's a communist country that is based on a form of government totally different than [different can be followed by than or from] ours.

"Anyway, we made progress.

"5:41 P.M. PST


Note:
(a) For bill press, see tablet press
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_press
(b) Demitri.
(i) At Financial Times, Demetri Sevastopulo served as Washington Bureau Chief from 2015 to 2021, and is currently "US-China correspondent [who] covers all aspects of the US-China relationship, ranging from foreign policy, national security and intelligence to trade, economics and business. * * * Demetri served as Washington Bureau Chief from 2015 to 2021 * * * Since leaving his native Ireland three decades ago, Demetri has lived in Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong and Washington. * * * Demetri speaks fluent Japanese and (rusty) Chinese."
Demetri Sevastopulo. Financial Times, undated.
https://www.ft.com/demetri-sevastopulo
(ii) Both his first and last names are Greek.

Demetrius of Thessaloniki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_of_Thessaloniki
(table: 270 - 305 or 306)

Sevastopulo is a Greek surname. Another Greek surname Sevastos is romanized from Σεβαστός (that is derived from Ancient Greek σεβαστός romanized as sebastós and meaning venerable or revered).
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sevastos
, whose English version (as a male given name) is Sebastian (where t is pronounced same as that in church).

And the Greek naming suffix -poulos (equivalent to -son in English, as in Richardson) is from Latin noun masculine pullus a young animal.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pullus

(c) "And as an Irishman, I apologize for bringing the rain."
(i) weather at the summit
(A) Although Woodside, California was forecast to rain in the evening of Nov 15, it turned out that there was no rain the entire day (and the temperature there ranged from 55 to 64 degrees F).
(B) 习近平同美国总统拜登举行中美元首会晤. 中华人民共和国外交部, Nov 16, 2023, "12:20" (Beijing date and time).
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/chn/gxh ... 31116_11181125.html

In this Web page, you can see
a group photo AND
a stroll at the end of the summit. For the latter, the weather was cloudy, for there was no shadow (from sunlight).

I assume that the group photo was taken at the beginning of the summit, BEFORE officials on both sides went to other loci for separate sessions -- except Blinken and Sullivan would would stick with Biden.  
(ii) "And as an Irishman"
(A) Both Ireland and the United Kingdom have mild climate (especially in winter: mean temperature 4-7 degrees C in January/ February, and 14-16 degrees in July/August: en.wikipedia.org for "climate of Ireland"), compared with other places of that altitude, due to (warm) "North Atlantic Current." See Gulf Stream
, where a map on the right margin carries the caption: "Evolution of the Gulf Stream to the west of Ireland continuing as the North Atlantic Current."  To the left of the map is section 3 Formation and behaviour: "A river of sea water, called the Atlantic North Equatorial Current, flows westwards off the coast of Central Africa. When this current interacts with the northeastern coast of South America, the current forks into two branches. One passes into the Caribbean Sea, while a second, the Antilles Current, flows north and east of the West Indies [made up of Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico -- from west to east) and the Lesser Antilles; Antilles Current flows south of the Bahamas]. These two branches rejoin north of the Straits of Florida."

The Bahamas is -- singular verb, because it is a country -- much the same as United States IS) part of West Indies, but not of (Greater or Lesser) Antilles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antilles
("The Lucayan Archipelago (consisting of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands), though a part of the West Indies, is generally not included among the Antillean islands")
(B) climate of Ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Ireland
("Rainfall is the most common form of precipitation on the island, and is extremely common throughout Ireland, although some parts of the west coast receive twice as much rain as the east coast")
(C) Still, Ireland the nation as whole rain less than the UK (which includes Northern Ireland). See precipitation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precipitation
, where map 2 has a caption: "Countries by average annual precipitation. Some parts of a country can be much wetter than others, so it is not an accurate depiction of the wettest and driest places on earth."
(iii) "I apologize for bringing the rain."

Alison Wood Brooks, Hengchen Dai and Maurice E Schweitzer, I'm Sorry About the Rain!  Superfluous apologies demonstrate empathic concern and increase trust. Social Psychological and Personality Science (which is the title of the journal), 5: 1-8 (2014)
https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publicat ... 15-2cf25746de50.pdf
("Hi, folks. Well, I’m sorry about the rain.   President Bill Clinton (August 1995) * * * By issuing a superfluous apology, the apologizer communicates that he has taken the victim's perspective, acknowledges adversity, and expresses regret. For example, though Bill
Clinton may have been dry and comfortable, by saying ‘'I'm sorry about the rain,' he communicates that he understands the crowd's perspective and expresses regret that they are wet and uncomfortable in the rain")

choi

(3) No, Joe, no! Moment Antony Blinken Winces and Shakes His Head When Biden Calls Xi a 'Dictator' at San Francisco Press Conference After Four Hours of High-Stakes Talks. DailyMail.com, Nov 16, 2023 (video)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news ... na-shakes-head.html

(4)
(a) China Issues Furious Rebuke After Biden Again Branded President Xi 'a Dictator' Hours After the Pair Held Clear-the-Air Talks: Beijing Blasts Comments 'Wrong, Irresponsible Manipulation.' DailyMail.com, Nov 16, 2023, "6:15 [am] EST, updated 11:08 [am] EST"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news ... -talks-Beijing.html

two consecutive paragraphs:

"Beijing's spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters at a routine briefing Thursday [Nov 16, 2023]: 'This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation.  

'It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage US-China relations, they are doomed to fail.'

(b) Reuters reported the same.

Trevor Hunnicutt and Jeff Mason, Biden Calls Xi a Dictator After Carefully Planned Summit. Reuters, Nov 16, 2023, 12:56 pm EST.
https://www.reuters.com/world/bi ... -summit-2023-11-16/

(b) BUT daily briefing in PRC 's Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows that on Nov 16, such a topic was not discussed.
(i) In Chinese:
发言人表态[:] 2023年11月16日外交部发言人毛宁主持例行记者会（2023-11-16）.
https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/wjdt_674879/fyrbt_674889/
(ii) In English:
Regular Press Conference[:] Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning’s Regular Press Conference on November 16, 2023.
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/
``````````````````Reuters
WOODSIDE, California, Nov 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he had not changed his view that Chinese President Xi Jinping was effectively a dictator, a comment likely to land with a thud in Beijing after the two leaders held straightforward summit talks.

Biden held a solo news conference after four hours of talks with Xi on the outskirts of San Francisco. At the end of the news conference, he was asked whether he still held the view that Xi was a dictator, something he said in June.

"Look, he is. 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," Biden said.

In response, China's foreign ministry said it "strongly opposes" the remarks, without mentioning Biden by name.

"This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Thursday at a routine briefing.

"It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage U.S.-China relations, they are doomed to fail."

Mao refused to specify the identity of "some people" in answer to a follow-up question.

Last March Xi clinched a third term as president when nearly 3,000 members of China's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress, voted unanimously for him in an election in which there was no other candidate.