BEIJING: China on Thursday congratulated US President Joe Biden on his inauguration and called for a reset in relations between Beijing and Washington after a corrosive period of diplomacy under Donald Trump.
Beijing also welcomed news that the US would rejoin the World Health Organisation and the Paris climate accord, as Biden tried to immediately pivot his office back to a key role in global leadership.
The ever-caustic Trump harangued China over trade, rights, the origins of the Covid-19 virus, tech and defence supremacy, prompting angry near-daily jousts between both countries’ diplomats.
The new US president is expected to remain tough on the superpower rival but soften the tone and commit to international cooperation after Trump’s divisive “America First” approach.
“With cooperation from both sides, the better angels in China-US relations will beat the evil forces,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press briefing.
She said Biden had used the word “unity” several times in his inauguration speech, and that it was “precisely what is needed currently in US-China relations”.
“The recent period has indeed been especially difficult,” she added. “Over the past few years the Trump administration, especially Pompeo, has buried too many mines in US-China relations that need to be eliminated, burned too many bridges that need to be built, and destroyed too many roads that need to be repaired,” said Hua on Thursday.
There were still signs of tension on the horizon, however, as it emerged that a representative of the self-ruled island of Taiwan was formally invited to the US inauguration for the first time since 1979.
Beijing balks at any official contacts with Taiwan and tries to keep the island diplomatically isolated.
Hsiao Bi-khim, Taipei’s envoy, posted a video of herself at Wednesday’s inauguration, saying she was “honoured to represent the people and government of Taiwan here at the inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris”.
“Democracy is our common language and freedom is our common objective,” she added.
Hua warned on Thursday that China wanted the US to “cautiously and appropriately handle Taiwan issues to prevent harm to US-China relations.”
Washington recognised Beijing over Taipei during the administration of President Jimmy Carter.
But the US remains democratic Taiwan’s most important unofficial ally and is bound by an act of Congress to sell the island weapons to defend itself.
Protecting the island from a Chinese invasion became one of the few issues to receive broad bipartisan support during the polarised Trump years, and politicians on both sides of the aisle have called on Biden to be more proactive in maintaining Taiwan’s freedoms.