China’s president Xi Jinping on Wednesday congratulated Joe Biden on winning the November 3 US presidential election, Chinese media reported.
“We hope the two sides will uphold the spirit of non-conflict and non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, will focus on cooperation, control differences and promote healthy and stable development of Chinese-U.S. relations”, Xi said in his congratulatory message to Biden.
China’s foreign ministry congratulated Biden on November 13, nearly a week after many US allies had, holding out as outgoing president Donald Trump refused to concede defeat. In 2016, Xi sent congratulations to Trump a day after the election.
Relations between China and the US have deteriorated to their worst, amid disputes over issues from trade and technology to Hong Kong and the coronavirus.
During the election campaign, Biden vowed a tough line on China’s expanding influence worldwide and referred to Xi as a “thug” for his human rights practices. Biden’s campaign has also referred to the crackdown on the Muslim Uyghur minority in China’s Xinjiang as “genocide”.
