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China has formally congratulated Joe Biden on his election victory, nearly a week after many of Washington and Taiwan’s allies recognized the Democrat as the winner of the US presidential race.
Biden has been congratulated by various European governments and allies, as well as Taiwan, the autonomous island claimed by Beijing, even though President Donald Trump has refused to admit defeat.
“We respect the choice of the American people,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Friday. “We extend our congratulations to Mr. Biden.”
Wang had declined to comment on Biden’s victory earlier in the week, saying only that Beijing was waiting for the result to be confirmed “in accordance with US laws and procedures.”
President Xi Jinping’s administration was initially concerned that congratulating Biden could anger Trump, who still has two months in office to attack China, according to an American expert from a government think tank in Beijing.
Trump has accused Beijing of failing to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, blaming the health crisis for sinking a booming US economy and ruining his chances for re-election.
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting US investors from investing in companies that allegedly have ties to the Chinese military. The order will not take effect until next year, but it is the latest punitive measure imposed on Beijing by the Trump administration.
Separately, Washington extended a deadline for Chinese tech company ByteDance to divest from the US operations of TikTok, its short video app. The company was given 90 days to address U.S. national security concerns after Trump signed an executive order in August or was forced to sell the U.S. unit on Thursday if he didn’t.
In the 40 years since Beijing and Washington formally established diplomatic relations, the Chinese government has never had to grapple with such a difficult protocol dilemma.
When former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush lost their re-election runs in 1980 and 1992 respectively, neither of them questioned the outcome.
When George W. Bush, Bush’s son, and Al Gore challenged the outcome of the 2000 elections in the courts, Beijing was also cautious. At the time, Jiang Zemin, China’s president, did not formally congratulate Bush until he won a Supreme Court case and Gore formally admitted.
Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute for International Studies at Fudan University, said he expected Biden’s policy in China to be less volatile than Trump’s despite continued disagreements on trade and human rights.
He added that ending Trump’s public attacks on China’s leaders and its political system would help ease ties. “This is something that was not even done in the cold war and it is very irrational,” he said.
