Had Donald Trump been the U.S. president hosting this week’s APEC meetings, I have no doubt that the headline from the event would have been unchanged. It would have been: “He’s a dictator.”
The only difference is it would be Xi Jinping who was saying it to describe Trump.
Other than that, though, a Trump-hosted APEC meeting would likely have been unrecognizably different from the successful and productive forum hosted by President Joe Biden.
While it’s not ideal, had he said no to the question, the media would have spun it as, “Biden refuses to call Xi a dictator”.
He could simply deflect and avoid the question, as anyone with half a brain would have done.