WASHINGTON, June 22 — The White House said yesterday it had "every expectation” that the top US diplomat’s recent trip to Beijing will lead to better relations, even after Joe Biden compared China’s leader to embarrassed "dictators”.

US State Secretary Antony Blinken "made some progress” during a long-awaited trip to China, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

"We have every expectation of building on that progress,” the official said.

Blinken’s visit, which concluded Monday, was meant to re-establish lines of communication as tensions simmer between the two global powers over Taiwan and an incident involving a Chinese balloon in February, which Washington believes was spying on the United States.

But China on Wednesday slammed Biden’s remarks equating Chinese leader Xi Jinping with "dictators”.

Beijing called that statement, made by Biden on Tuesday at a fundraiser in California, "an open political provocation.”

The White House afterward sought to smooth tensions.

"It should come as no surprise that the President speaks candidly about China and the differences that we have — we are certainly not alone in that,” the official said later.

"The President believes that diplomacy, including that undertaken by Secretary Blinken, is the responsible way to manage tensions,” the official added.

Tuesday was not the first time Biden has made significant, even provocative, statements at fund-raising receptions — usually small-scale events at which cameras and recordings are forbidden but where journalists may listen to and transcribe the president’s opening remarks.

At one such event last October Biden spoke of the threat of nuclear "Armageddon” from Russia. — AFP