BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top diplomat said on Tuesday he hoped the incoming Trump administration would “make the right choice” and work with Beijing, hours after Donald Trump told reporters the COVID-19 pandemic had strained his relationship with “friend” Xi Jinping.
“We hope the new U.S. administration will make the right choice and work with China in a mutually-beneficial manner to remove disruptions and overcome obstacles,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a forum in Beijing, according to a statement from his ministry.
The remarks followed President-elect Trump telling his first news conference since his election victory six weeks ago that Chinese President Xi Jinping had been a friend of his and that “he is an amazing guy” but that relations had been strained.
“We had a very good relationship until COVID,” Trump told reporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday when asked whether Xi would attend his inauguration. “COVID didn’t end the relationship, but it was a bridge too far for me.”
(Reporting by Joe Cash, Liz Lee and Ethan Wang; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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