Beijing open to steady, healthy Washington ties

Beijing is ready to work with Washington to promote the "steady, healthy and sustainable" growth of China-United States relations for the benefit of both countries and the world, a top Chinese envoy said after the new US administration took office on Monday.

Vice-President Han Zheng, a special representative of President Xi Jinping, attended US President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony, which was moved inside the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, due to the extreme cold gripping much of the country.

Han was accompanied by Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng. At previous US presidential inaugurations, China usually was represented only by its top Washington envoy.

Hours after the inaugural ceremony, Xie wrote on social media that China "is ready to work with the US side to adhere to the strategic guidance of the two leaders and follow through on their important consensus, so as to push for the steady, healthy and sustainable development of bilateral ties, to the benefit of both countries and the world".

Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Tuesday that China stands ready to maintain communication and strengthen cooperation with the new US administration.

China also hopes to work with the new administration to properly handle differences and promote the greater progress of China-US ties, Guo said at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

As Trump began his second term on Monday, the day's pomp and pageantry served as a backdrop for the new president's inaugural address and, later, the signing of a flurry of executive orders.

The 78-year-old Republican did not immediately announce specific tariff plans in his half-hour speech at the Capitol, but he said the US would collect "massive amounts "of income from foreign trade duties, as his administration would "immediately" begin to overhaul the trade system to protect US workers and families.

Trump also pledged efforts to "defeat what was record inflation, and rapidly bring down costs and prices", but some analysts said his plans for tariffs on imports could have the opposite effect.

Warwick J. McKibbin, a nonresident senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in an article on Friday that "if the US imposed an additional 10 percent tariff on China, and China responded in kind, US GDP would be $55 billion less over the four years of the second Trump administration".

Inflation could increase 20 basis points in the US, McKibbin said in the article, which was co-authored by Marcus Noland, the Peterson Institute's executive vice-president.

Canal remarks rejected

In his speech, Trump also repeated his intention to take back control of the Panama Canal.

"We didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back," Trump said, in the only reference to China in his inaugural address.

Trump's remarks were rejected by Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino, who said the key interoceanic waterway would remain under its control.

"I must comprehensively reject the words of President Donald Trump," Mulino said in a statement published on social media. "The canal is and will remain Panama's.... There is no presence of any nation in the world that interferes."

Trump also declared a national emergency on the southern US border while harshly criticizing the previous administration.

"We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders but refuses to defend American borders, or, more importantly, its own people," Trump said as former president Joe Biden watched from the front row.

In the evening, Trump began signing executive orders at Capital One Arena and later at the White House.

Trump signed 78 "rescission "orders to revoke previous executive actions taken by Biden.

Security was heavy in the US capital, especially along the streets close to the Capitol and near Capital One Arena, where the traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue and past the White House was moved indoors instead.

Still, the streets were lined with temporary stands and vendor carts selling Trump's signature MAGA(Make America Great Again) merchandise, from hats and T-shirts to flags and pins, to a large crowd.

Many in the crowd expressed their hope for the development of bilateral relations with China.

"I'm happy to see that both the Chinese leaders and American leadership are engaged in negotiations with one another. I don't see the reason why friendly relationships can't continue so long as we respect one another as a sovereign country," Daniel Troy, 23, of Huntington, New York, told China Daily.

"You can understand the interests of the Chinese, and not wanting to pay the tariff," he said. "It's going to hurt their companies, so … once again, the key word is negotiation," he said, adding that as long as the two nations engage in dialogue, the people of both countries can get along with each other.

D.R. Lansford, from Palm Springs, California, was wearing a hat with the numbers "45-47", a reference to both Trump presidencies.

"China and America are the strongest two nations on Earth. And why cannot we work together? That's my hope. That's my dream. I believe that will take place," he said at Carmine's DC, one of the downtown bars that hosted watch parties.

Yifan Xu and Mingmei Li in Washington contributed to this story.