US President, Joe Biden has called Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator at a fundraiser in California.

President Biden also said President Xi was embarrassed over the recent tensions around a Chinese spy balloon that had been blown off course over the US.

His remarks come a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met President Xi for talks in Beijing, aimed at easing tensions between the two superpowers.

US Secretary Blinken’s visit to Beijing, the first by a top US diplomat in almost five years, restarted communications between the two countries.

Washington and Beijing have long locked horns over an array of issues including trade, human rights, and Taiwan but relations have especially deteriorated in the past year.