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Chinese President Xi Jinping publicly congratulated Joe Biden on being elected president of the United States, leaving Russian Vladimir Putin among a handful of world leaders who have yet to acknowledge the former vice president’s victory.
“Xi said that he hopes the two sides will maintain the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and mutually beneficial cooperation,” according to a statement from the Chinese embassy in Washington on Wednesday.
The statement added that Mr. Xi hoped the two sides would “focus on cooperation, handle differences, promote the healthy and stable development of China-US relations, and join hands with other countries and the international community. to promote the noble cause of the world. ” peace and development ”.
Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan also sent a congratulatory message to Kamala Harris, the vice president-elect of the United States.
“We appreciate the congratulations from all the world leaders who have conveyed them, including President Xi,” said a Biden transition official.
While those notes are generally part of normal diplomatic protocols, President Donald Trump has yet to grant the election and Xi has been late in offering his personal congratulations to the president-elect.
The Chinese government formally congratulated Biden on November 13, nearly a week after he was widely recognized as the winner of the November 3 presidential election.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said at the time that Beijing “respected the choice of the American people” and extended its congratulations to Mr. Biden, but did not refer to him as president-elect.
Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are among a handful of world leaders who have yet to congratulate Biden.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday that Trump’s tweet on Monday announcing the start of formal transition transfer protocols “was not enough” to justify Putin’s congratulations.
Vladimir Putin meets Joe Biden, then vice president of the United States, in Moscow in 2011. © REUTERS
“You know that reviews and recounts in some states are still going on, without which the election results cannot be officially announced,” Peskov said, according to Interfax.
After the furor over Trump’s ties to Russia dashed Moscow’s hopes of a thaw with Washington, the Kremlin believes pessimistic ties will improve with Biden, whose future cabinet includes several hawks from Russia.
“Whoever ends up in the White House after January 20, 2021, I see no reason to expect a dynamic improvement in Russian-American relations,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday, according to the Tass news agency. .
Chinese analysts said the Xi government was initially wary of angering Trump, who could take steps to further undermine strained bilateral relations before leaving office on January 20.
The Trump administration has put antagonism with China at the center of its foreign policy, on issues ranging from trade and defense to Hong Kong and the coronavirus. He had listed China as a “great power competitor” amid a series of abrasive actions, leading some to speculate that a new cold war was underway.
“The game has already started; the first domino has fallen, ”said Evan Medeiros, who was Barack Obama’s top Asia-Pacific adviser, on the congratulatory message, which characterizes the effort to manage the US relationship with China as one of the greatest challenges facing faces the Biden administration. “Let’s see what happens,” he said.
Bipartisan support for a tougher US stance against China has led many to believe that the Biden administration will take a tougher line against Beijing than the Obama administration. Biden has referred to Xi as a “bully” and said the United States must “get tough” on China.
Biden officials have also suggested that the US approach must combine cooperation, competition and confrontation. Jake Sullivan, chosen by Biden as his national security adviser, said in an article he co-authored last year that the United States must avoid “a dangerous cycle of confrontation” with China.
Antony Blinken, Biden’s candidate for secretary of state, has said that any effort to secede from China would be unrealistic and counterproductive, and suggested developing areas of cooperation on climate, nuclear non-proliferation and health.
However, a former Obama administration official said highlighting US intentions to avoid a cold war ran the risk of “handing over leverage” to China.
“[Some argue] In very practical and tangible terms, there is not much that China offers us on climate and Covid other than rhetorical support, and that really what we have to do is fix our alliances, develop our position in Asia, act together at home and then from that base pursuing a more competitive approach with China, ”said the former official.
In December 2016, Chinese officials were enraged when Trump, then president-elect, received a phone call from President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, the autonomous island that Beijing claims to be part of its sovereign territory. Xi did not speak to Trump until after his inauguration.
During his first phone call with Xi in February 2017, Trump reiterated his administration’s support for the “one China policy” that Washington has maintained since it formally established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979.
