China warms up to Biden, asks him to restore bilateral ties

A visibly relieved China on Thursday warmly congratulated new US President Joe Biden and urged him to heal and rebuild the severely damaged bilateral ties by his predecessor Donald Trump.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, known for fiery retorts against the US, welcomed Biden’s first moves to join the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organisation (WHO) which was trashed by Trump as a puppet of China over its conduct to deal with the COVID-19.

“We express congratulations on the inauguration of President Biden. I noted many US media say this is a new day in AmericaAfter travelling an extraordinary period, we believe our two peoples deserve to embrace a better future. We hope Biden will be successful in governance,” she said.

“I noticed the word unity has been mentioned several times in his inaugural speech. This is what is urgently needed in our bilateral relations,” she said, adding that over the past four years “a handful of US politicians made so many lies and incited so much hatred and division”.

“Chinese and Americans have fallen victims to this,” she said and asked the new US administration to bring the damaged China-US ties on the right track.

“We have different social systems, development stages and historical culture. It is only natural for us to have differences. Just as Biden said democracy should allow the right to dissent and disagreement must not lead to disunion, this should also be true to international relations,” she said.

“Countries with different ideologies, social systems and culture can live in harmony and achieve the goal of common development and peace and development for the world,” she said.

On Wednesday, as the curtain came down on the Trump administration, China heaved a sigh of relief, hoping that the most torrid period in Beijing-Washington ties will have some cooling period.

Biden, who in his inaugural speech mainly focussed on forging unity at home, did not mention China even once, in sharp contrast to Trump but did not offer any clear signals to fix the damaged ties, official media here reported.

Trump’s four years in power were regarded as the worst phase in China-US relations as the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) headed by President Xi Jinping struggled to deal with what China’s officials say is the most elusive and unpredictable American leader ever.

TV BRICS reports with reference to Trinity Mirror.