The inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the United States has been welcomed in Beijing but Chinese officials are increasingly impatient that Washington has not enunciated a new China policy.
At a foreign ministry news conference held the day after the inauguration, Chinese spokeswoman Hua Chunying said “as I watched the fireworks display and heard the crowd cheering at the inauguration party, I did feel somewhat emotional. We wish President Biden every success in state governance.”
But while understanding Biden’s focus on the domestic situation, particularly the need to control the pandemic ravaging the country, Chinese officials are clearly disappointed that he doesn’t seem to be thinking of China and did not mention China during his inaugural address. Those officials have asserted that unity, Biden’s solution for domestic discord, would work equally well to heal relations between China and the United States.