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BEIJING - The consensus for both major US political parties is to maintain good relations with China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday in the country's first official response to this week's mid-term US elections.
US-China tensions have flared up this year over business and trade, long the basic glue in a relationship between powers who differ sharply over human rights, climate change, and flash points such as Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
"It is also conducive to global peace and development. This is, as well, the consensus of both US parties and of US society," Hong added.
"We especially need to work with the US side to develop positive, cooperative and comprehensive Sino-US relations in the 21st century," he said.
Hong would not comment directly on the results of the election, as he said this was an "internal matter" for the United States.
US voters, anxious about the economy and unhappy with President Barack Obama's leadership, punished Democrats in an election rout on Tuesday that gave House control to Republicans and weakened the Democratic majority in the Senate.
During the election campaign, some Democrats accused China of pilfering US jobs by suppressing the value of its yuan currency and rigging its economy to favour Chinese state companies against US investors.
In the last official business before they broke for the campaign, the House raised China's ire by passing a law that would treat an undervalued currency as an unlawful subsidy that could be remedied by duties on selected Chinese goods.
But Senate follow-up on the House action is far from certain when the outgoing Congress sits for a brief "lame duck" session later this month to conduct unfinished business.