China's ties with US have plummeted and fears have risen that the two superpowers with the world's biggest economies could become engaged in a conflict over Taiwan.
President Xi Jinping has said China and the United States must "find ways to get along" to safeguard world peace and development, state media reported, as he embarks on his precedent-breaking third term in power.
"The world today is neither peaceful nor tranquil," Xi wrote on Thursday in a congratulatory letter to the National Committee on US-China Relations – some of his first remarks since the Congress – according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Thursday.
"As major powers, strengthening communication and cooperation between China and the US will help to increase global stability and certainty, and promote world peace and development," he reportedly told the New York-based non-profit organisation.
Xi added that China was "willing to work with the US to give mutual respect, coexist peacefully... (and) find ways to get along in the new era", the broadcaster reported.
Doing so "will not only be good for both countries, but also benefit the world", Xi wrote.
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US seeks no conflict
President Joe Biden, in a meeting with his top military advisers, said that the United States "does not seek conflict" with China and that Xi knows this.
Biden said on Wednesday the United States would continue to lead on a number of issues, from Russia's aggression in Ukraine to the climate crisis to the Asia-Pacific region.
"We do not seek conflict with them," he said of the Chinese.
Earlier on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that China has decided the status quo of Taiwan's situation is no longer acceptable and has begun to ratchet up pressure on the island, including holding out the possibility of using force.
Speaking at an event organised by Bloomberg, Blinken said China had altered a decades-old basic understanding between Washington and Beijing that its differences with Taiwan would be managed peacefully.
"What's changed is this: the decision by the government in Beijing that that status quo was no longer acceptable, that they wanted to speed up the process by which they would pursue reunification," Blinken said.
Blinken added that China has also made decisions on exerting more pressure on Taiwan and holding out the possibility of "using force to achieve their goals" if pressure tactics do not work.
"That is what has fundamentally changed."
Washington did not want a "Cold War" and was not trying to restrain China, he added, but was resolute and standing up for its interests.
China - only competitor
China and the United States have butted heads in recent years on issues ranging from Beijing's aggression towards self-governing island Taiwan to its crackdown in Hong Kong and alleged rights abuses in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
Washington has also accused Beijing of providing diplomatic cover for Russia's offensive of Ukraine.
Xi sealed another five years as China's leader at the end of a twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress on Sunday.
The Biden administration said this month that China is the only competitor to the United States "with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance that objective".
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