And no, it’s not ‘diplomacy’… It took fewer than 24 hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s relationship-thawing visit to China for things to take an awkward turn after President Joe Biden referred to his Chinese counterpart as a “dictator” yesterday. At a fundraiser in California, Biden said Xi Jinping was left red-faced after a Chinese spy balloon was shot down over the US in February. “That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened,” he said. China’s foreign ministry responded, with spokesperson Mao Ning saying the remarks were “a blatant political provocation” and “extremely absurd and irresponsible”. The dialogue dust-up comes as a Lowy Institute opinion poll found while 56% of Aussies are glad Oz-China relations are on the mend, 52% believe Beijing poses a military threat to us within the next 2 decades.