John Kerry Declines to Call Xi Jinping a Dictator, Says He’s the ‘Major Decider’ of China’s ‘Direction’

John Kerry, the ex-secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee currently serving as the special presidential envoy for climate under Joe Biden, repeatedly declined to label Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping a “dictator” on Thursday.

Asked by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) if he agreed with Biden that Xi was a dictator, Kerry declined to use the term.

“There’s no question at all that President Xi is the major decider of the direction and of the policies of China,” asserted Kerry before being cut off by Issa.

“Is he in fact, effectively a dictator?” asked Issa.

Kerry began to reply “Well I’m not, I don’t think it’s useful to get into, I’m not gonna get into-” before being interrupted by Issa again.

“But he does wield the power of a dictator?” he inquired.

“He wields enormous power as the leader of China, absolutely,” conceded Kerry. “And everybody understands that. But I don’t, you know-”

Issa chimed in one more time to ask Kerry if he wished “the president had used another word.”

“No, I don’t even, I don’t, I just frankly all of that is water off the duck’s back and you know I don’t think we ought to get tangled up in, you know, labels and names and whatever. What we ought to do is look at the heart of what we’re trying to do,” answered Kerry before going on to assert that Biden and Xi have a “very good relationship” and that Xi “honors” that relationship.

Kerry has been criticized in the past for mincing words about the wrongdoing of the Chinese government, including the ongoing genocide it’s carrying out against the country’s Uyghur Muslim minority.

In 2021 when asked about treatment of the Uyghurs, Kerry said only that the administration is “honest about our differences” with the Chinese and emphasized that it wasn’t his “lane.”

Watch above via C-SPAN.