BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping told former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Friday that Beijing hopes for “stable and sustained” progress in ties with the US following last month’s American presidential election.

Xi said his government is closely watching post-election developments in the US, and now is a “key moment” of political transition.

“Overall, we’d like to see the China-US relationship move ahead in a stable and sustained manner,” Xi said in opening comments at a meeting between the two at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of the national legislature in the heart of Beijing.

Xi also noted that he’d recently met with President Barack Obama and held a phone conversation with President-elect Donald Trump.

The 93-year-old Kissinger is a regular visitor to China, where he is deeply respected for laying the groundwork for the normalisation of diplomatic ties between Beijing and Washington in the 1970s. The Republican Party elder statesman also met with Trump shortly after the Nov 8 election and was expected to offer his impressions to Xi and other Chinese leaders.

In his opening remarks, Kissinger thanked Xi for receiving him at a busy time and for Xi’s associates’ explanation of the Chinese leader’s “thinking and the purposes of your long-range policy.” Reporters were then ushered out of the room.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2016