Joe Biden 'sent Xi Jinping congratulatory message' to mark China's 75th National Day
Chinese President Xi Jinping received a congratulatory message from US President Joe Biden to mark the 75th anniversary of the People's Republic of China this week, marking the latest top-level exchange as tensions persist in China-US relations.
The news was made public by the Chinese foreign ministry in a statement published on its website on Saturday evening.
The ministry reported the message in a question-and-answer format, noting that it was a response to media questions.
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"President Joe Biden recently sent a message of congratulations to President Xi Jinping on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China," the official English-language statement said.
"In the message, President Biden noted that 'on behalf of the people of the United States, I send our congratulations to you and the people of the People's Republic of China as you celebrate the 75th anniversary of its founding. The American people and I convey our best wishes to the people of the People's Republic of China'."
The statement did not specify when the message was sent and in what format.
China celebrates the founding of the People's Republic on October 1, which usually marks the start of a week-long national holiday.
The diplomatic move comes at a delicate time in bilateral ties, with the two countries engaged in a wide-ranging rivalry, from trade and tech to influence in the Asia-Pacific.
China carried out military drills in the contested South China Sea on October 1, following a joint exercise in the region by the navies of the US, Philippines, Japan, Australia and New Zealand at the weekend.
The last exchange between the two presidents was in April, when they held a phone call on topics including cybersecurity and climate change. Their last in-person meeting was nearly a year ago, held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in California last November.
The presidential message also came as the US Department of State appeared to deviate from its past diplomatic practice of sending a formal congratulatory message ahead of China's National Day.
The department published a congratulatory message from Secretary of State Antony Blinken on its website at 8am Beijing time, on Thursday, October 3. It has traditionally congratulated China before its National Day, as it does with all countries with which it has diplomatic ties.
It did so on September 29 last year and on September 30 in 2022.
The White House had not released any official statement on Biden's message as of Saturday evening.
On October 1, the official Chinese government website also posted an article published each year by state news agency media Xinhua on congratulatory messages received by China on its National Day.
The article did not note any messages received from the US.
The first few paragraphs mentioned messages from Russia and North Korea, the same as last year.
In 2019, when China celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, the article noted Russia's message first, followed by the United States and then North Korea.
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