China has finally given an official reaction on the United States presidential election.
China congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on winning the United States presidential election, ending days of speculation about when Beijing would formally acknowledge the victory, Bloomberg reports.
“We have been following the reaction on this US presidential election from both within the United States and from the international community,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a briefing in Beijing on Friday.
“We respect the American people’s choice and extend congratulations to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris,” Wenbin added.
China’s acknowledgement came after multiple television networks projected Biden would defeat Donald Trump in Arizona, one of the battleground states where the president has looked to overturn the election.
Major world leaders had congratulated Biden and Harris for defeating the Republican candidate but China was one of the few countries including Russia and Mexico that had so far withheld comment, as Trump contested the results.
“We understand that the result of the US presidential election will be determined following the US laws and procedures,” Wenbin noted.
US-China ties have grown increasingly strained in recent years under the Trump administration and relations are as icy as at any time since formal ties were established four decades ago.
Trump’s four years in the White House have been marked by a costly trade war between the two powers, with Beijing and Washington also sparring over blame for the Covid-19 pandemic and China’s human rights record in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
