China complained to Germany after its Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called President Xi Jinping a 'dictator'. Baerbock made the comment during an interview to Fox News, while on a visit to the US. The Chinese foreign ministry called the title "absurd" and an “open political provocation,” Reuters.
"If Putin were to win this war, what sign would that be for other dictators in the world, like Xi, like the Chinese president? So therefore Ukraine has to win this war," Baerbock said.
Germany, in July, published a policy to manage a more "assertive" China to deal with Beijing, Berlin's top trade partner.
Baerbock has been an open critic of China. In August she said, China posed a challenge to the "fundamentals of how we live together in this world". She also said that Beijing was becoming a systemic rival rather than a trade partner. Baerbock has called for a harder line against China.
China said that it was "strongly dissatisfied" and that it had made "solemn representations to the German side through diplomatic channels," Reuters reported.
Soon after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a visit to China in June, President Joe Biden called Xi a dictator.