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Dewey Sim

Andrew London

Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Donald Trump on his sweeping victory in the US presidential election, setting the tone for a geopolitical rematch between the two most powerful leaders in the world.
Xi told Trump on Thursday that China and the US would “benefit from cooperation and lose from confrontation”, official news agency Xinhua reported.
“A stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship is in the common interests of the two countries and the international community’s expectations,” Xi said.
“It is hoped that the two sides will uphold the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, and find a correct way for China and the United States to get along.”
Xi and Trump are no strangers. They met four times between 2016 and 2020 during the American leader’s first term in the White House. Trump is the last US president to visit China and likes to tout his strong relationship with the Chinese leader.
Incumbent US President Joe Biden is the only American president who has not visited China while in office since the two sides normalised relations in 1979.


Bilateral ties spiralled into a full-blown rivalry during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021.
While China was not a top theme in this US presidential race, it loomed large over many debates.
Trump, who pulled off a seemingly impossible comeback largely thanks to the American voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy, has promised to make tariffs and rebuilding the American manufacturing sector a core policy.
This could put the US at loggerheads with China, which Washington said was pursuing an aggressive industrial policy at others’ expense. The two sides are also expected to continue competing over core issues such as technology, Taiwan and the South China Sea.
In 2020, Xi sent his congratulations to Biden on November 25, over two weeks after the election. The delay was caused by bitter disputes over the election results, as Trump, running against Biden at the time, refused to admit defeat.
This time, his Democratic Party opponent Vice-President Kamala Harris conceded the race hours after Trump declared victory. She vowed to assist Trump and ensure a “peaceful transfer of power”.
Harris called Trump on Wednesday afternoon. CNN reported that the talk only lasted “a few minutes”.
Biden also spoke to Trump and invited him to the White House “in the near future” to discuss power transition.
With Republicans securing a majority in the Senate and on course to retain control of the US House of Representatives, Trump will return to the White House in January as one of the most powerful American presidents in history. He also has the support of a conservative-majority Supreme Court.
The extent of his victory is in stark contrast to the last race when he was defeated. In Tuesday’s vote, Trump outperformed his 2020 election tallies in state after state, while Harris failed to do as well as Biden did in winning the presidency four years ago.
Trump held the Republican-leaning “red states”, flipped swing states and even gained ground in supposed Democratic strongholds.




Before Tuesday, most American opinion polls predicted a “neck-and-neck” race. But in the end, the 78-year-old Trump easily beat his much younger female opponent. He is on track to become the first Republican presidential candidate to win both the popular and electoral votes since George W. Bush at the turn of the century.
He won at least five of the seven swing states to secure the 270 Electoral College votes required to win the presidency. As of Thursday, he was leading in the remaining two, Arizona and Nevada, where votes were still being tallied.
Trump’s political career appeared to be over after his false claims of election fraud led a mob of supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a failed bid to overturn his 2020 defeat.
His efforts to reverse the loss led to two separate indictments, though all the criminal cases against him are expected to end following his victory.
He has emerged as one of the most powerful American leaders in history, with an unquestioned public mandate to carry out his populist policies. The world will be closely watching his interactions with Xi, widely considered the strongest Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping.
Beijing was caught off guard eight years ago when Trump, with no political experience, first came to power.




But this time, the Chinese are prepared. Chinese government sources said that Beijing had started to discuss and prepare for Trump’s second term “well before the election day”.
A Chinese official familiar with the situation said the leadership had asked for written reports on how to prepare for Trump’s second term “in various areas”.
Xi’s congratulatory note to Trump was immediately followed by similar messages to the US president-elect from lower-level Chinese officials, including the foreign ministry spokesman’s office and Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the US.
Also on Thursday, Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng congratulated J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate.
On Wednesday, when asked about the US election, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning would only say that it was an “internal affair” for the US and that “we respect the choice of the American people”.
“China’s policy on the US is consistent. We will continue to view and handle our bilateral relations under the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” she said.


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China

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The world will be watching Donald Trump’s relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping as former US leader returns to White House


The world will be watching Donald Trump’s relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping as former US leader returns to White House.


Xi’s message to Trump sets tone for geopolitical rematch between powerful leaders

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The world will be watching Donald Trump’s relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping as former US leader returns to White House

The world will be watching Donald Trump’s relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping as former US leader returns to White House