China declined Monday to congratulate Joe Biden as the winner of the US presidential election, saying the outcome of the vote was still to be determined.

Democrat Biden clinched enough states to win the presidency but incumbent President Donald Trump has not conceded and is making legal challenges to the outcome of the November 3 election.

“We noticed that Biden has declared election victory,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily media briefing. “We understand that the US presidential election result will be determined following US law and procedures.”

After declining to acknowledge Biden's victory despite repeated questions from reporters, Wang said: "We hope the new US government can meet China halfway."

In 2016, Xi sent congratulations to Trump on November 9, a day after the election.

Relations between China — among a handful of major countries including Russia and Mexico that has not congratulated Biden — and the United States are at their worst in decades over disputes ranging from technology and trade to Hong Kong and the coronavirus, and the Trump administration has unleashed a barrage of sanctions against Beijing.

While Biden is expected to maintain a tough stance on China — he has called President Xi Jinping a “thug” and vowed to lead a campaign to “pressure, isolate and punish China” — he is likely to take a more measured and multilateral approach.

“We always believe that China and the United States should enhance communication and dialogue, manage differences on the basis of mutual respect, expand cooperation on the basis of mutual benefit and promote sound and stable development of bilateral relations,” Wang told the briefing.

Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times, a tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily, said in a tweet: “China hasn't congratulated Biden on his victory as quickly as Western countries did."

"I think it's because China needs to keep larger distance from the US presidential election to avoid getting entangled in its controversy. This actually shows that China respects the US as a whole,” he added.

Earlier on Monday, Chinese state media struck an optimistic tone in editorials, saying relations could be restored to a state of greater predictability, starting with trade.

While acknowledging that Washington was unlikely to ease pressure on China over issues such as Xinjiang and Hong Kong, the Global Times said Beijing should work to communicate with Biden's team.

“It's in the common interests of people from both countries and of the international community that China-US relations become eased and controllable,” it said.

The China Daily said it was “obvious” improving ties with China could start from trade, and reviving trade talks was critical to restoring some understanding and trust.

Wang Huiyao, head of the Centre for China and Globalisation and an advisor to the government in Beijing, said he expects more dialogue under a Biden administration.

“Biden's election means an opportunity to re-establish relations with the US as he is more likely to uphold multilateralism. That means China and the US can start discussing issues including climate change, pandemic control and trade,” Wang told Reuters.

On China's Twitter-like Weibo, top trending items included the hashtags “BidenSpeaksToTheWholeCountry”, viewed 1.21 billion times, and “Trump will lose special Twitter protections in January”.

Putin awaiting official result: Kremlin

Also on Monday, the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was waiting for official results from the US presidential election before congratulating a winner.

“We consider it correct to wait for the official results to be finalised. I want to remind you that President Putin repeatedly said he will respect the choice of the American people,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

When Trump won the 2016 presidential election over Hillary Clinton, Putin congratulated him within roughly an hour.

Peskov said that this election was different because of the legal challenges that Trump is planning to mount over the vote.

“The difference is quite obvious ... then there were no announcements of legal challenges,” Peskov said.

He added that Moscow was ready to work with whomever is declared the winner of the US vote.

“We hope that with the next president of the United States it will be possible to re-establish a dialogue and together agree on ways to normalise our bilateral relations,” he said.

Russia was accused of interfering in the 2016 election to help get Trump elected, in the hope he would take a softer line with Moscow.

Biden is expected to take a tougher stand and during the campaign slammed Trump for having “embraced so many autocrats around the world, starting with Vladimir Putin”.