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Footage has captured US Secretary of State Antony Blinken appearing taken aback and shaking his head disapprovingly after President Biden called Chinese President Xi Jinping a "dictator".

At the end of a press briefing on Wednesday, local time, President Biden was asked if he'd continue labelling his Chinese counterpart as a dictator, a term he'd used earlier in the year.

“Well, look, he is," he said.

"I mean, he's a dictator in the sense that he is the guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours anyway (inaudible)”.

Mr Biden's remarks follow his first face-to-face meeting in a year with President Xi, aimed at stabilising their tense relationship.

Spending four hours together, including meetings, lunch, and a garden stroll, they aimed to portray their status as global rivals without being engaged in an all-or-nothing competition.