Burgum calls China’s Xi a ‘brutal dictator’

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), a 2024 presidential candidate, called Chinese President Xi Jinping “a brutal dictator” in an interview that aired Sunday.

“Absolutely,” Burgum told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press,” when asked whether Xi was a dictator. 

President Joe Biden recently called Xi a dictator and faced fierce pushback from the Chinese government, which took issue with the description and denied the accusation.

“Well, I'd call him a brutal dictator. I mean look at the rights record that they have,” Burgum said about China, when asked about the blowback Biden faced and how he would have handled the situation. 

Other Republicans have similarly backed Biden’s description of Xi as a dictator, including former Vice President Mike Pence (R), who is also running for president and who described Biden's comment as “a statement of fact.” 

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Mike McCaul (R-Tex.) also backed Biden’s label for Xi and said in a statement, according to reports, “Biden is right: Xi is a dictator, and we should treat him as such.”

Burgum, a long-shot candidate, launched his bid last month for the Republican presidential nomination. His pitch focused primarily on his business experience and stressed the need to focus on the economy, rather than cultural issues.

“The economy must be our top priority,” Burgum said last month in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “We need to get inflation under control, cut taxes, lower gas prices and reduce the cost of living.”