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(CNN) – On Monday, the Chinese government sidestepped questions about when it would congratulate US President-elect Joe Biden on his election victory, and a Foreign Ministry spokesman said only that China would act “in accordance with international practice.”
More than 24 hours after the US media declared Biden victorious, China remains one of the few major countries that has yet to send a message of congratulations to Biden and his team on their defeat of Donald Trump, leaving many speculating if officials there are waiting for the exit. president to admit defeat.
And with two months until Trump leaves office, Beijing may want to avoid anything that could further destabilize US-China relations.
At a regular press conference in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that China had “taken note” of Biden’s victory declaration.
“We understand that the outcome of the general election will be determined in accordance with the laws and procedures of the United States,” Wang said in response to questions from CNN. “We will handle the issue of the (congratulations) statement in accordance with international practice.”
Wang did not elaborate on what the “international practice” might involve, especially given the large number of nations that have already congratulated Biden, including the UK, Australia, Israel, France and Germany.
Beijing’s apparent unwillingness to offer a firm answer on the election outcome comes as Chinese state media displayed cautious optimism that a Biden presidency could help restore US-China relations, which have been notably deteriorated during Trump’s tenure.
In an editorial published on Sunday, the state-run China Daily newspaper said relations could be “restored for the better,” especially in trade, where the two countries have fought an economically damaging two-year trade war with no end in sight.
“By adhering to this approach and strengthening the ballast on their trade ties, the two countries can regain the generally positive momentum that has characterized their relations for the past four decades,” the editorial said.
China’s government-backed nationalist tabloid the Global Times published an editorial titled “Give Up Illusions About Sino-US Relations, But Don’t Give Up Efforts,” in which it recommended that Beijing “communicate with the team. of Biden as thoroughly as he can, making greater joint efforts to restore Sino-US relations to a state of great predictability. “
However, he concluded by noting that, in the end, China could only rely on itself. “China must become a country that the United States cannot repress or destabilize, and make cooperation with China the best option for the United States to realize its national interests,” the editorial said.
Tensions between the United States and China
In the final weeks of the campaign, on the road and in debates, President Trump emphasized taking China as an important part of his platform, attacking Beijing as the ultimate culprit in the COVID-19 pandemic, or the “virus. from China”. as he often called it.
Meanwhile, his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has been flitting around Asia propping up an anti-Beijing alliance, visiting Japan, India and several other countries on the periphery of China.
“The United States is up to the challenge from China,” Pompeo said last month, adding that the ruling Chinese Communist Party is “the greatest threat to freedom and democracy today.”
Analysts hope that Biden will control this kind of rhetoric and take a more pragmatic approach to Beijing, even if he may be equally suspicious of Chinese influence and its growing strength as his longtime Republican rival.
Speaking ahead of the election outcome, Jeff Moon, an analyst and former US diplomat in China, said he hoped Biden would resume the “traditional practice of relying heavily on the US interagency community and America’s traditional allies, introducing a more deliberate decision-making on America “-China’s problems” in contrast to Trump’s often capricious policies toward Beijing.
“That approach will result in a more formal and predictable pattern of bilateral engagement that will help restore the tone of relations by stabilizing the overall relationship between the United States and China and avoiding the possibility of misunderstandings that could escalate the conflict,” Moon told CNN .
But he added that the deeper issues are likely to remain unsolved. “After decades of dialogue and cooperation between the United States and China on the full range of bilateral issues, China has consistently refused to adopt policy changes and reforms that address American concerns,” Moon said. “China’s formula for the restart is therefore unacceptable to the United States.”
Speaking last month, Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the US, said that Beijing has strongly opposed, from the very beginning, a new ‘Cold War’ or decoupling, and we are committed to strong and stable growth. of Sino-US relations. “
“The China-United States relationship is experiencing serious difficulties that have rarely been seen in the past 41 years of diplomatic relations,” Cui said. “This has seriously undermined the fundamental interests of the Chinese and American people.”
But the rupture of relations has not only been driven by Washington, by all that Trump may have accelerated it.
In part, the frayed ties are the result of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy and military expansionism, as well as growing international consternation over continuing human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
And while Beijing can hope this is simply due to pressure from the US presidential election campaign, Biden bragged about his ability to stand up to China in contrast to Trump, denouncing the outgoing president for initially embracing the man’s leader. Chinese strongman, Xi Jinping, and praising his coronavirus. reply.
But Beijing may not feel compelled to commit to the United States under the Biden administration, especially since the risk of radical or unpredictable action is considerably lower than under Trump, who last month threatened to make China “pay a high price. price for what they have done. ” to the world.”
This story was first published on CNN.com, “the Chinese government evades the question of when it will congratulate the president-elect of the United States, Biden.”
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