China congratulates Biden, Harris on election win

China on Friday congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris for winning the U.S. presidential election, nearly a week after they were projected to win the race for the White House against President Trump.

“We respect the choice of the American people,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, The Associated Press reported. “We congratulate Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris.” 

“At the same time, we understand that the outcome of this U.S. election will be ascertained in accordance with U.S. laws and procedures,” he added.

Biden has spoken to and been publicly congratulated by a slate of world leaders following his victory last week, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, among others.

But China and Russia had notably been slow to acknowledge the president-elect.

Relations between the Trump administration and China have been strained, with the president frequently blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak and claiming that officials in the country could have acted sooner in order to stop the spread of the virus. Tensions have also spiked throughout Trump’s time in office over trade and tariffs, control in the South China Sea and more.

Trump on Thursday signed an executive order clearing a path for the U.S. to blacklist Chinese companies that the administration claims are connected to the Chinese military. A group of high-profile Chinese companies are named in the order, including tech giant Huawei.

The president earlier this year also signed an executive order seeking to limit the use of the widely popular video-sharing app TikTok in the U.S. The app is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. 

The president-elect has signaled that he supports tough policy on China, but his advisers have said the Biden administration will open a dialogue between the two countries on issues like climate change and combatting the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden is currently leading Trump with 290 electoral votes to the president’s 217 electoral votes, according to races called by the AP. The outlet has not yet called the races in Georgia and North Carolina.