'Deeply impressed': China's new foreign minister heaps praises on Americans

Days after outgoing Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi vowed to "course-correct" on China-US ties, China's new Foreign Minister Qin Gang heaped praises on American people after stepping down as Chinese envoy to Washington DC.

"I have been deeply impressed by so many hard-working, friendly and talented American people that I met," Qin said in a tweet on Tuesday, adding he had "made many friends across the US."

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Qin said he would continue to "support the growth of China-US relations" and promote peace and development.

China-US ties: Improving or ebbing?

The bilateral ties are reported to have improved since talks between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in November.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's scheduled visits to China in 2023 are expected to add another touch of smoothened diplomacy between Beijing and Washington DC.

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The US-Chinaties had hit a low after US House speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last August. Following this, China conducted unprecedented military drills around the self-governing island nation that it claims as its own, violating Taipei's Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) regularly since August.

Qin Gang's moderation on US and Wang Yi's "course-correct" pitch

Qin, during his time in Washington as Chinese envoy, had drivena Tesla with Elon Musk, while deliveringmoderate messages on heated debates.

His predecessor Wang Yi was recently promoted to the head of Communist Party’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission over the last weekend of 2022. On January 1, Wang vowed to "course-correct" on US-China ties.

"(We will) implement agreements reached by the top leaders of the US and China, seek to establish guiding principles of Sino-US relations and correct course (in bilateral ties)," Wang wrote in an article published on January 1 in Qiushi, the flagship magazine of China’s ruling Communist Party.

In Quishi article, Wang was cited as director of the general office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, the first public confirmation that he had taken over as China’s new foreign policy head, replacing Yang Jiechi, who stepped down at the age of 72.

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