Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he doesn't believe China's leader Xi Jinping is a dictator, after US President Joe Biden gave the Chinese leader that label this week.
Speaking at a fundraiser for his 2024 reelection yesterday, Biden made the dictator comment while stating Chinese President Xi Jinping had been "embarrassed" by the spy balloon Biden ordered shot down over US airspace.
"That's what's a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn't know what happened. That wasn't supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States. And he didn't know about it," Biden said.
"When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there."
Ahead of his trip to China with a trade delegation, where he will meet Xi, Hipkins was asked by a reporter in Lower Hutt if he agreed with Biden's dictator comment.
"No, and the form of government that China has is a matter for the Chinese people," Hipkins said.
When pressed how the Chinese people could actually enforce a change in the way they are governed Hipkins said, "well that would be a matter for them".
The ruling Chinese Communist Party has long come under fire for its human rights record and restrictive rule.
Xi has been in power since 2013. The term limit on the presidency was removed at the 2018 National People's Congress.
Xi was was unanimously voted back into power in March 2023, receiving 2952 votes from CCP members.
Hipkins is leading a trade delegation to Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai which will last from June 25 to 30. It is the first prime ministerial visit to China since the pandemic.
When announcing the trip earlier this month but before the visit with Xi was confirmed, he was asked how he would navigate raising human rights abuses or grievances.
Hipkins said New Zealand had prided itself on being "stable and consistent" in its approach.
"That means that where we have human rights concerns we will raise them. Where we have concerns around trade or any other foreign policy issue, we will raise those.
"Our relationship with China has always been based on setting out, clearly, our position, and being consistent in our position, and we'll continue to do that."
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